Online Safety Act and collapse of club forum

[AlexD]

Thread to discuss the latest crackdown on free speech in the UK and its impact on forum like this:

UK’s Online Safety Act Shuts Down Forums

The UK’s Online Safety Act is forcing forums offline, while the new Crime Bill expands police powers. Discover how these laws impact free speech and privacy.

breachaware.com

Mr Orwell was only 41 years out in his titles.

 

[ARMSID]

you will not be allowed to critisise or complain anymore without falling foul of some law or other

 

[User00056]

This really is quite frightening. We've already seen the 'Clype's Charter' here in Scotland which allows you to report all and sundry for whichever innocent statement is now classed as a hate crime. What's next, I wonder? 'Thought crime', perhaps?

 

[artschool]

what happens if the website is registered and run in another country?

 

[FrenchieBoy]

Talk about "Big Brother"!
This bit really caught my eye- It’s already taken out London Fixed Gear and Single Speed (LFGSS), a father’s rights forum, and even a hamster forum. Yes. A hamster forum. Apparently, discussing wheel sizes and seed mixes is now a national security risk.
Did Donald Trump or J D Vance have anything to do with this ruling, it sounds quite likely!?

 

[Mr. Gain]

I reserve judgement, but this feels a bit "thin": the source, Breachaware is not a news outlet with a general remit but a company with a specific interest in cyber security issues (which may be good or bad), and there's not much online re. the closure of the forums mentioned, (which took place last year). Possibly a slow-burn problem, therefore, or possibly not an actual problem.

 

[AlexD]

what happens if the website is registered and run in another country?

Potentially, they can claim the domain from the registrar, and shut it down. Additionally, countries block domains frequently, but it becomes a game of whack a mole as the site pops up on another domain the next day.

I note quite a few sites are citing the hamster forum being shut down. E.g. Hamster forum and local residents’ websites shut down by new internet laws however, in searching for the original source, I came across one has that name with an x in front of it, and from the thumbnail, did not seem to be about hamsters . I am assuming here, that it is really a hamster forum that was shut down.

The Daily Telegraph's article on this is quoted, and the source of that is Hundreds of websites to shut down under UK’s ‘chilling’ internet laws

So if someone who confuses live deer with a cartoon, Bambi, and objects to this forum, what is to say that we don't all go down the swanny? The voice of one activist with an agenda, shreds the rights of thousands.

 

[csl]

Potentially, they can claim the domain from the registrar, and shut it down.

It will end up run like Pirate Bay with a list of domains you can switch to in case one goes down.

 

[zambezi]

I flagged the birth of this Orwellian overreach in early 2022...

https://www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk/threads/freedom-of-speech-want-to-keep-it.237725/post-2394968

...if you did not write to your MP then, will you do so now? WriteToThem


Facial recognition cameras were rolled out in Croydon public spaces this month: AI identification and tracking of citizen movements.
Blair's think tank and the government want you to have digital ID, digital money and for them to have control of it all. All of this will come to pass if the democratic voice is lost.

 

[Smellydog]

I can't wait. Anarchy is just around the corner. Mass uprising and riots.
Remember, the more you compress a spring the more it goes out of control should it escape your grasp!

For decades now how many times have tyrannical authorities said " it's for your own safety"!
Sends a shudder down my spine.

 

[angusb1]

How does big brother know if someone said something that might've upset some delicate flower if the forum is only accessible via a login?

I like that fact that I can use Google to search loads of forums but I'd rather lose that and have them all private than lose them altogether.

@csl is all the red tape in that article something you have had to deal with for the SD?

 

[csl]

@csl is all the red tape in that article something you have had to deal with for the SD?

Yes. How much is not clear at the moment though.

 

[royalewithcheese]

How does big brother know if someone said something that might've upset some delicate flower if the forum is only accessible via a login?

I like that fact that I can use Google to search loads of forums but I'd rather lose that and have them all private than lose them altogether.

@csl is all the red tape in that article something you have had to deal with for the SD?

They'd register an account to gain access if they wanted to have a look

 

[angusb1]

What's annoying about this is it seems similar to the taxation system in that small companies and individuals who are easy to prosecute are forced to jump through a million hoops and pay a fortune, yet the multinational likes of Facebook/Google/Amazon, whom are used by a huge number of people in comparison, largely don't follow the rules but are so big they are not prosecuted for it.

Crazy world when the SD is moving in the same circles as the PirateBay...

 

[angusb1]

They'd register an account to gain access if they wanted to have a look

Maybe some kind of referral system by existing users would be needed then?

 

[royalewithcheese]

Maybe some kind of referral system by existing users would be needed then?

Maybe, but i imagine that would curtail much of the new membership. It's probably easier just to let anyone look!

 

[csl]

Crazy world when the SD is moving in the same circles as the PirateBay...

The point I was trying to make was that, potentially, hundreds of legal sites could end up treated like Pirate Bay and as a minimum, be hosted elsewhere.

 

[angusb1]

The point I was trying to make was that, potentially, hundreds of legal sites could end up treated like Pirate Bay and as a minimum, be hosted elsewhere.

Exactly

 

[zambezi]

They'd register an account to gain access if they wanted to have a look

Not neccessary to snoop. CSL explains in another thread that tracking and stopping web-scrapers is a game of whack-a-mole:

Post in thread 'Who are all these robots looking at SD?'

Mar 31, 2025

Latest count places the number of bots online at over 100 [on SD's top page, glance to the right to see who's online panel].

Yikes. Is SD really that interesting to automated scanners?

View attachment 413558

And that's only the bots we know about. I had to a huge IP range based in Hong Kong hosting VPN and it was, I'm sure, a Baidu-esque search engine or AI sweeping up all that lovely knowledge.

• csl

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[MarinePMI]

Thread to discuss the latest crackdown on free speech in the UK and its impact on forum like this:

UK’s Online Safety Act Shuts Down Forums

The UK’s Online Safety Act is forcing forums offline, while the new Crime Bill expands police powers. Discover how these laws impact free speech and privacy.

breachaware.com

Mr Orwell was only 41 years out in his titles.

Sad, but true. I hate to say it, but many on this forum have practically asked for this to happen, via other positions they profess. "Hey, I don't like that, it should be outlawed by the government!". Hoisted up on their own petards....