“Recognise the UK’s open markets as a competitive advantage. We need to protect — not give away cheaply — prize assets such as our world-beating creative sector and #copyright laws that underpin them, our innovative tech sector and differentiated digital competition regime that strengthens it, and our new approach to protecting people’s safety online.” #DMCCA #OSA
This is a long, heartfelt and important post from @girlonthenet which you should absolutely read if you care about freedom of expression, especially as it relates to sexuality. The only part I would argue with is when she says the accompanying photo is not very good. It’s an awesome shot of a great looking arse in an amazing location. #OSA #FreeSpeech #censorship
https://www.girlonthenet.com/blog/goodbye-sinful-sunday-good-actually/
Corteo contro i tagli all’#Istruzione, studenti bruciano una maxi bandiera dell’Europa davanti al #MUR.
In occasione dello sciopero nazionale indetto dai collettivi di #CambiareRotta e #Osa, gli studenti delle università e delle scuole superiori, hanno bruciato la bandiera dell’UE, per protestare contro i tagli all’istruzione e contro i finanziamenti agli armamenti.
Allo sciopero hanno aderito anche i precari della ricerca, delle scuole e i sindacalisti di #Usb.
https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2025/04/04/corteo-scuola-studenti-bandiera-bruciata-video/7940561/
#UK online safety law #Musk hates kicks in today, and so far, #Trump can’t stop it
Enforcement of a first-of-its-kind #UnitedKingdom law that #ElonMusk wants #DonaldTrump to gut kicked in today, with potentially huge penalties possibly imminent for any Big Tech companies deemed non-compliant.
UK's #OnlineSafetyAct ( #OSA ) forces tech companies to detect and remove dangerous online content, threatening fines of up to 10 percent of global turnover.
#socialmedia
Ofcom’s risk assessment deadline has passed, and online platforms must now take action to protect users from illegal content and activity occurring on their platforms. Significant fines await those who fail.
https://www.computing.co.uk/news-analysis/2025/new-online-safety-act-measures-come-into-force
Great read
"The Online Safety Act reads to me as a profoundly ironic tragedy. #Ofcom constantly reiterates that huge, vague swaths of expression are “illegal, harmful content” while, to me, almost everything they’ve written about the #OSA is illegal, harmful content. The OSA exercises prior restraint and enables jawboning for a deliberate chilling effect, placing an undue burden that would never withstand strict scrutiny let alone justify unreasonable search and seizure"
https://lobste.rs/s/ukosa1/uk_users_lobsters_needs_your_help_with#c_xevn8a
UK’s internet watchdog puts storage and file-sharing services on watch over CSAM - https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/17/uks-internet-watchdog-puts-storage-and-file-sharing-services-on-watch-over-csam/ "regulator said its evidence shows that file-sharing and file-storage services are “particularly susceptible” to being used" #osa
Reminder: #Fediverse and #Mastodon is largely run by individuals who have to deal with the technical gubbins as well as the administrative stuff like the new UK #OSA regulations.
Unlike other platforms, you can move platforms easily (as I did a while back), and have a dialogue with the mods. I just lobbed a few quid a month towards maintenance and the hard work of @Floppy and the crew.
The bulk copy/pasting is done, now I'm into the difficult bit of actually justifying the assessment. Ooh what's that shiny thing over there? #OSA
Small, low-risk sites should be out of scope so long as providers have a reasonable belief that children will not come across harmful material on them, say campaigners.
@cyberleagle Watched this parliamentary debate on the implementation of the Online Safety Act. Lots of concern legitimately expressed about Ofcom not going far enough with large and/or high-risk platforms. But only Kirstie Blackman also mentioned the disproportionate impact on small, low-risk platforms.
#osa #OnlineSafetyAct #ukpolitics
OFCOM have replied to me about https://PornBy.email.
Sadly, as detailed as the response is it still boils down to "We don't comment on individual services" so of no help at all till enforcement come knocking.
Hi Gareth,
Ofcom cannot comment or advise on the scope of specific services. However, to assist you further in your considerations, I draw your attention to the following provisions of the Online Safety Act. In relation to a Part 3 service, Paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Act outlines:
"A user-to-user service is exempt if emails are the only user-generated content (other than identifying content) enabled by the service."
However, Paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 to the Act further clarifies that:
“a user-to-user service described in any of paragraphs 1 to 5 is not exempt if—
(a) regulated provider pornographic content is published or displayed on the service, and
(b) the service has links with the United Kingdom within the meaning of section 80(4).”
(See also section 4(2) and Paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 which includes a similar clarification.)
This means that in addition to considering whether or not the service may be in scope of Part 3, it would be advisable for you to consider whether the service may be in scope of Part 5 of the Act (i.e. a service on which pornographic content is published or displayed by the service provider, or a ‘Part 5 service’, which could be, for example, a pay-site where a studio producing pornography owns the service and uses it to make its content available). You may in particular wish to refer to the definition of ‘regulated provider pornographic content’ set out in section 79(2):
"pornographic content that is published or displayed on the service by the provider of the service or by a person acting on behalf of the provider, including pornographic content published or displayed on the service by means of—
(a) software or an automated tool or algorithm applied by the provider or by a person acting on behalf of the provider, or
(b) an automated tool or algorithm made available on the service by the provider or by a person acting on behalf of the provider."
In making any assessments about potential Part 5 scope, p. 7-13 of the Guidance may be most relevant. Paragraphs 3.4-3.18 give guidance on the meaning of published or displayed.
You may also wish to consider the definition set out in section 226 which explains who the ‘provider’ of a Part 3 and/or Part 5 service is under the Act.
We recommend you seek independent legal advice if you are unclear whether or not the service in question may be in scope of the Act. For clarity, Ofcom cannot pre-approve a service as compliant before it is launched. It is a service provider's responsibility to understand if it is in scope and ensure its service is compliant.
Kind regards,
Ofcom Supervision Team
UK’s internet watchdog toughens approach to deepfake porn.
Ofcom, the UK’s internet safety regulator, has published a new draft guidance as it continues to implement the Online Safety Act (OSA) — the latest set of recommendations aim to support firms to meet legal obligations to protect women and girls from online threats like harassment and bullying, misogyny, and intimate image abuse.
"The best I can hope for at this point is to treat compliance with the #OSA as a box-ticking exercise, and find a way of ticking the box in the way that does me, my team, and my users the least harm possible. But even if I achieve all that, I've still won a poisoned game."
Read the rest of the post on #Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/122904695
the ongoing tradition of Online Safety Act backfiring against small forums and playing in the hands of centralised social media platforms continues. now Hexus's forums are closing down https://forums.hexus.net/hexus-news/426608-looks-like-end-hexus-forums.html
this is truly self-sabotage of the highest level. completely idiotic
This is our response to the #OnlineSafetyAct 2023. It is now linked to from all our forum pages.
I'm not wasting any more time on this. If #Ofcom come after us wanting more we'll just take the forum down.
I'm afraid I've decided to just block UK users from my Newsgrouper site from 16 March. I'm just not willing to jump through all the hoops required by the Online Safety Act. More info at: https://newsgrouper.org/eternal-september.support/18568/18810
#osa #OnlineSafetyAct #usenet
𐌐𐌀Ꝋ𐌋Ꝋ 
