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4chan fined $26K for refusing to assess risks under UK Online Safety Act
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2025
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The UK should just block sites that don't comply. They have no business trying to fine US websites.
People should fight for their rights and free speech and make pressure on the gouvernement. Blocking is isolationism.
Extort, you mean. The law threatens them with abduction and being held in captivity.
What? No it doesn’t, not as long as the people responsible don’t step foot in the UK.
If they do - yes they’ll be arrested for having broken UK law.
I guess thats not a threat? Not sure what else youd classify that as. "If you step on our turf you're going to be jailed" is just peaceful language haha
You have to obey the law of whatever country you are currently occupying, even if the rule is bad shit crazy, actually especially if the rule is bat shit crazy. There are plenty of people who have done nothing wrong who would be arrested if they step foot in China, but that doesn't really bother anyone because they don't step foot in China.
Also it would be interesting to see what they would even be charged with, since offcom don't really have authority to issue arrest warrants. Ofcom barely have the authority to enforce UK law in the UK. Otherwise the likes of GB news wouldn't exist.
They're not "occupying" or even operating here. all the servers have been in Texas since 2008. The British gov are attempting to legislate feature implementations for companies that aren't operating in britain. it's ridiculous.
Apparently they are operating in the UK though apparently they are selling some kind of pro service, so they are operating in the UK. To be clear it's a stupid law, but it is the law.
It's a process. They need to issue the fine first to give them a chance to pay rather than jumping to blocking it. If they continue to refuse to pay that's where it'll go.
The uk is irrelevant anyways. They will not be missed when they strengthen the Great Firewall rules
people exist here though :(
Then get your asses in order. If you have doubts, the French across ye pond taught pretty well how to use guillotines to achieve it. Didn't you guys also have a mask guy do the same?
It's an interesting idea that countries could only fine websites that operate in said country. Could get away with a lot by finding a permissive country to do what would otherwise be illegal and worth of fines.
"Selling user's private information illegally? Buddy, Tuvalo don't care"
That's ... how it works.
Nope lol, countries definitely try to fine websites not operated in the same country. Sometimes they're just not succesful
Not just "sometimes". The thing you're looking for is "jurisdiction". A country doesn't have jurisdiction in another.
The comment I replied to talked about trying to fine websites based outside the respective country. Countries obviously still try that
Then 4chan shouldn't do business in the UK by selling 4chan passes there.
4chan should just block UK IPs. They already ban VPN IPs from posting, so obviously they have some infrastructure there to support that.
Not you again... genuinely convinced this user is a bot. He made this same argument a month ago on a now deleted post almost verbatim. I disputed his claims with evidence and they continuously moved the goalpost through the entire argument. either braindead or just software please ignore.
Then explain why you disagree instead of coming at them with ad-hominem.
Not who you replied to, but: there is no legal, ethical, or moral, requirement for a business of one country to comply with the laws of another. If there was, all business would be beholden to the most overbearing government on any one subject. And just to specifically state it before it’s brought up, being tied into the international banking system doesn’t change that; if a state doesn’t want its citizenry doing business with a particular entity, it’s on them to stop it on their side or come to an agreement with the other’s government. Which does happen, especially with the conglomerate hegemony of components of the international banking system, but naturally that means that the only time any entity of a state is forced to comply with the laws of another is when their home-state demands it, which ultimately isn’t the laws of the other.
Their payment processor is operating in the UK though. 4chan isn't refusing money from UK residents. It is accepting their payments.
4Chan doesn’t have their own personal payment processor that they’re responsible for. They’re tied into processors like stripe and accept all payments that make it to them on the US side. So long as it is legal, which is typically the only way that a payment actually goes through as processors refuse the obviously illegal cases like encompassing embargoes. If the UK doesn’t want payments going to 4chan through a processor that operates in their country, it’s on them to stop the payment processor on their end.
The UK knows this, the fines are just one step towards them petitioning processors.
Why should that be their problem?
Because they're doing business in that region. You don't just get to go to another country and do business as you please there.
Isn't it people in the UK that go to a US company and do business there?
Not with the internet. 4chan uses a payment processor that allows UK residents to pay with UK currency.
"Allows" - do they do anything specifically for the UK?
They allow UK residents to use a credit or debit card to pay for passes.
"allow"
Seems to me as if the people in the UK sign up with an american company.
4chan has not disabled accepting payments from UK residents through their Coinbase portal. Therefore they are allowing UK residents to pay them.
4chan is not geo blocking UK visitors in their Cloudflare portal, so they are allowing UK residents to visit their site.
4chan wants all the benefits of UK business without obeying their laws.
4chan isn't in the UK and has no reason to figure out what laws apply there.
When you made this post, did you first check which countries your post ended up in?
4chan agreed to the terms of service agreement here:
https://www.coinbase.com/legal/user_agreement/united_states
That means they agree their business can be affected by international regulations.
No, that's not what it says.
I know, its hard to believe your eyes, but it does say they can be adversely affected by international legislation and regulations if they want to do business there.
They could always opt to use a US-based payment processor that doesn't deal with international payments.
It specifically talks about the value of crypto currency, which can be affected by any number of external events. I'm going to assume you're simply trolling now.
Maybe UK payments processors should bar purchases of 4chan passes then.