Report from the BBC
In Brief – The online message board 4chan, where users post texts and images anonymously and face minimal content moderation, has declared it will not pay fines imposed by Ofcom, the UK regulator that is charged with enforcing the new Online Safety Act (OSA). The platform has long been accused of hosting a wide range of objectionable content, including pornography. Ofcom, which has been investigating 4chan’s compliance with its new legal obligations, has issued a provisional notice of contravention for the site’s failure to respond to the regulator’s information requests, including plans to impose an initial fine of £20,000, with daily penalties thereafter. The platform says that it is US-based, has no operations in the UK, that Ofcom’s notices “create no legal obligations in the United States,” and has sued Ofcom to block OSA fines in US federal court. The company is portraying the enforcement campaign as an example of what the Trump Administration calls “extraterritorial censorship mandates.” Outside US court action, which is unlikely to succeed for Ofcom, the regulator could take action to disrupt 4chan’s ability to be used by UK residents, including ordering other platforms operating in the UK to remove 4chan from search results, blocking payments, or even ordering UK internet service providers to block access to the site.
Context – The OSA and EU’s Digital Services Act have been called “regulatory cousins” to press digital platforms to better police objectionable content. They were enacted when the US Government was led by an administration that shared similar views about content moderation. That is no longer the case. Instead, Republican suspicion that conservatives have been discriminated against by Big Tech firms run by Bay Area progressives is nearly universal, and as populist conservative activists have increasingly networked across borders, they have accused incumbent governments of similar discriminatory intent. The European Commission’s DSA investigation of X is likely to be a friction point, and UK populists are already criticizing OSA rules. President Trump is sympathetic with concerns over conservative “censorship” and has a hair trigger for trade threats.