Their lawsuit will fail for the simple reason they only have to age verify UK citizens, not everyone. But it does go to show how stupid this law actually is. If the UK wanted to block 4chan (for example) to under 18s, then ISPs should provide optional filtering software with every account that can be enabled per device to do it. It would be far more effective than expecting websites around the world to police the UK’s own laws.
If the world goes to shit but Kiwi Farms is destroyed, I will have a moticum of warmth in my blood.
So 4chan that said they wouldn’t pay the UK fine as the UK doesn’t have jurisdiction over companies based in the USA is going to sue UK over stuff that 4chan can’t be responsible for?
4chan will sue the UK trying to hold them responsible for UK law, in US court. Foreign judgement limiting freedom of speech. Seems to be in line with their strategy of not being an UK company so not paying fines: “Your laws don’t apply to us. Hell, they aren’t even constitutional!”.
Everyone should sue those fuckers. Taking away the last pieces of our freedom.
The complaint is hilarious. So on brand.
I guess they’ll win. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens then.
Wait until they sue Mississippi
The nihilist school shooters of the world are way more litigious than I thought possible.
I don’t really get this.
Whether I like the UK’s act, they are free to set the laws of their land. So if foreign websites don’t want to comply, the UK is also free to order its ISPs to block the site.
Which kids will then circumvent with VPN.
And so on …
Whether I like the UK’s act, they are free to set the laws of their land. So if foreign websites don’t want to comply, the UK is also free to order its ISPs to block the site.
Yes, and 4chan is an asshole, if you want to do business in a country you need to respect the country’s laws even if your company in not in that country.
What 4chan can do (and it is the only thing) is to block people from UK. Or find a way to convince a UK court that the law is unconstitutional (or the UK equivalent) but I would not bet on this.
Yes despite my downvotes I’ll stick my neck out to agree with you.
If a US company wanted to sell liquor online in the UK, they’d have to follow U.K. laws for alcohol licensing and age-verified delivery.
I don’t know why age verification is any different. That’s the UK law (which I disagree with for what it’s worth, certainly in its current implementation) and if you want to operate in the UK (and for a website that means be accessible to U.K. audiences) you follow U.K. laws while here.
Passing laws like this disproportionately affects smaller websites that are independent from big tech. A law like this HAD to come from big tech, where tech bros are exchanging money with the government for total wrangling and control of every step of their users / citizens.
As an analogy, currently in some countries tobacco and vape products can only be sold in certain stores in a certain way, hidden behind a counter, think tobacco stores, corner stores, gas stations or mom&pop depanneurs. Suddenly some government official receives bribes (through lobbying or otherwise) from a cartel of big-box stores and security-service providers that prompts them to propose a bill to mandate a security guard at every small store to act as a bouncer against letting children into the store. As a small business owner not only does this require you to hire a security guard and pay their salary + the overhead going towards big-sec, you are also losing revenue from potential customers (children) that would come into your store to buy chips, pop, ice cream or bag of milk (yes, bag). And I didn’t even get to the analogy of control aspect yet, just that of the smb.
It’s a stupid law and for a stupid reason (FOR THE CHILDREN!!) and I hope more, serious businesses pile on such a lawsuit and hopefully kneecaps anyone ever thinking about implementing such an idiocy. I’m looking at you Steam, GOG, Epic, etc.
Edit: to go further on the control side of the analogy, the security guard has to ask for the ID of every person wishing to enter the store, jot it down in their logbook and submit the logbook to their parent company hourly. The big-sec parent company now has this data for sale to anyone willing to offer. Including the government, who can then enact further control on their citizens based on the data obtained on their habits.
