Internet News

The owner of a popular cycling forum LFGSS has decided to close his business due to the enormous risks and expenses inherent in running a British business due to be suffocated by the misleadingly named Online Safety Act. He explains:

Reading Ofcom's tome of censorship rules and we're done... we fall firmly into scope, and I have no way to dodge it. The act is too broad, and it doesn't matter that there's never been an instance of any of the proclaimed things that this act protects adults, children and vulnerable people from... the very broad language and the fact that I'm based in the UK means we're covered.

The act simply does not care that this site and platform is run by an individual, and that I do so philanthropically without any profit motive (typically losing money), nor that the site exists to reduce social loneliness, reduce suicide rates, help build meaningful communities that enrich life.

The act only cares that is it "linked to the UK" (by me being involved as a UK native and resident, by you being a UK based user), and that users can talk to other users... that's it, that's the scope.

I can't afford what is likely tens of thousand to go through all the legal hoops here over a prolonged period of time, the site itself barely gets a few hundred in donations each month and costs a little more to run... this is not a venture that can afford compliance costs... and if we did, what remains is a disproportionately high personal liability for me, and one that could easily be weaponised by disgruntled people who are banned for their egregious behaviour... I do not see an alternative to shuttering it.

The conclusion I have to make is that we're done... Microcosm, LFGSS, the many other communities running on this platform... the risk to me personally is too high, and so I will need to shutter them all.

On Sunday 16th March 2025 (the last day prior to the Act taking effect) I will delete the virtual servers hosting LFGSS and other communities, and effectively immediately end the approximately 300 small communities that I run, and the few large communities such as LFGSS.

Ofcom writes:

Today we are publishing our first major policy Statement for the Online Safety regime.

This decision on the Illegal Harms Codes and guidance marks a major milestone, with online providers now being legally required to protect their users from illegal harm.

Ofcom published proposals about the steps providers should take to address illegal harms on their services shortly after passage of the Online Safety Act in October 2023. Since then, we have been consulting carefully and widely, listening to industry, charities and campaigners, parents and children, as well as expert bodies and law enforcement agencies. With today's publication1, online providers must take action to start to comply with these new rules. The result will be a safer life online for people in the UK, especially children.

Providers now have a duty to assess the risk of illegal harms on their services, with a deadline of 16 March 2025. Subject to the Codes completing the Parliamentary process, from 17 March 2025, providers will need to take the safety measures set out in the Codes or use other effective measures to protect users from illegal content and activity. We are ready to take enforcement action if providers do not act promptly to address the risks on their services.

Analysis to follow but there are over 1000 pages to get through first!

ReclaimTheNet has likened Meta's regime for punishment of transgressions against its rules to the re-education camps run by repressive regimes. The group writes:

Like law enforcement in some repressive virtual regimes, Meta is introducing the concept of re-education of 'citizens' (users), as an alternative to eventually sending them to 'jail' (imposing account restrictions) for first offences.

The same community standards now apply across Meta's platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads ,while the new rule means that instead of collecting a strike for a first policy violation, users who go through an educational program can have it deleted.

There's also probation...those who receive no strike for a year after that will again be eligible to participate in the remove your warning course.

Meta first introduced the option for creators last summer and is now expanding it to everyone. In announcing the change of the policy, the tech giant refers to research that showed most of those violating its rules for the first time may not be aware they are doing so.

This is where the short educational program comes in, as a way to reduce the risk of receiving that first strike, and Meta says the program is designed to help better explain its policies.

The re-education takes the form of an online training course allowing errant users to own up to their crime, explain why they did it, and no doubt promise to do better next time.

British counter-terror police have blocked a video game that allows players to recreate Hamas's Oct 7 attacks on Israel.

The police have ordered Steam, an online video game marketplace, to remove Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from its UK store.

The game drew the attention of terror police because it included scenes of players paragliding into an Israeli army base and killing soldiers. Although the game does not refer to Hamas directly, a trailer displays Israeli soldiers being shot in the head by terrorists wearing green Hamas-style headbands.

Nidal Nijm, the game's Brazilian-Palestinian creator, said in a statement on Steam's website:

The request to block my game in the UK came from the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU). So this is clear that UK authorities consider my game as 'terrorist' propaganda.

Despite being blocked in Austria, Germany and the UK, the video game remains on sale in the US for $14.99 (£12).

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: The Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) is a national Counter Terrorism Policing unit based within the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, which is dedicated to the assessment of potential terrorist and extremist material found online by the public.

The UK government has launched the Office for Digital Identities and Attribute (OfDIA), a group within the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, tasked with encouraging the growth of the digital ID market under the leadership of chief executive Hannah Rutter.

In fact the Labour government is continuing with a Tory idea that was first announced by the previous government in 2022.

Rutter claimed that digital identity can make people's lives easier, and unlock billions of pounds of economic growth.

Rutter made sure to address one of the criticisms regarding the security of such schemes -- centralization -- by saying that the system her office is working on does not have a centralized digital database.

Currently, OfDIA is working to create a trusted and secure digital identity market and this work focuses on five areas, starting with developing and maintaining the digital identity and framework, and then being in charge of a register of accredited organizations that meet the framework's requirements.