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Comment on 4chan is getting fined in the UK by the Office of Communications(Ofcom) under Online Safety Act; 4Chan Respond by appealing to Trump administration and intending to fight it in the U.S courts.

TehPers@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

On one hand, 4chan (miraculously) has a point. They do not have a presence in the UK. They just serve traffic to it. Fining them for not following UK law makes no sense, and 4chan should tell them to pound sand.

On the other hand, if this were merely “we’ll block you in our country unless you do X”, then I do think notifying them ahead of time would be common courtesy. If the “violating” website sends them back a picture of tubgirl or something, then that’s your answer.

This really comes down to national sovereignty. The UK can’t force US businesses with no presence in the UK to play by the UK’s rules, and the US can’t stop the UK from blocking external businesses from serving the UK for not complying with their rules (as dumb as the rules are).

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Microw@piefed.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
They serve users in the UK, therefore they can be fined. There is an established way to not get fined by governments of states whose markets you operate in: get out of that market. Block traffic from the UK. It is not the country's obligation to block, it is the company's. This has been already played out over the years in courts.

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- TehPers@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Websites have no way to know where a user is located. They can only use heuristics to predict a user’s location. Such a law would be unenforceable anyway because 4chan can just tell the UK to blow themselves and there’s nothing the UK can do in US territory except politely ask Trump to ship them to Europe.
  
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- festus@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  they can be fined.
  
  Sounds like no? How are they going to make a company with no assets or staff in the UK pay the fine? American courts likely won’t enforce it.
  
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  - TehPers@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    This is also hilariously relevant with export-controlled GPUs in China. GamersNexus put out a great video on it recently, but basically in China there’s no laws preventing someone from buying or selling the GPUs (despite the US’s attempts to block it), so entire above-ground businesses operate on selling these GPUs, even providing their own warranties and support.
    
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  - Microw@piefed.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I mean, the state can fine them, they just can't execute that if the owner company of 4chan truly has no assets in the UK.
    
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