If you run a low-risk community site in the UK and have questions about your duties under the Online Safety Act, lunchtime Q&A session with Ofcom on 12 Feb - sign up here https://lu.ma/qijpvfnl
Update sent out by me just now via the Indie Compliance Newsletter - which you can also sign up to in case of interest https://buttondown.com/indie-and-community-web-compliance-/archive/3-lunchtime-qa-with-ofcom-12-feb-2025/
please share with anyone who might find this useful!
@rachelcoldicutt hope the moderator is good. This could get fraught if OFCOM are (still) unable to offer clear support to a room full of surprised people who aren't lawyers and surprised that OFCOM cares about their local walking group with sub 20 members, for instance
@pushcx might this be useful regarding fears around the future of lobste.rs in the UK?
Jan 23, 2025, 10:59 PM@tsvallender I've already seen what they say to small sites. They dump the entire 3,017 pages of garbage on them.
I see no reason to waste another 90 minutes on Ofcom given that they can't even produce a legal theory as to why they'd have jurisdiction.
FWIW here's an update I posted earlier today: https://lobste.rs/s/ukosa1/uk_users_lobsters_needs_your_help_with#c_xjccul
@pushcx Yeah that makes sense. For what it's worth I have contacted my MP though he's a complete waste of space. What a joke 😔
@pushcx Thanks. Replying here as I don't actually have a Lobsters account yet, but I will try and attend that session in the background at least and raise those issues. Makes me so angry to see these laws being made by people who are either willfully ignorant of the technology or understand but do it anyway.
Jan 24, 2025, 4:27 PM@tsvallender A few more well-meaning people sent me this same link, so I wrote up something longer about the problem here: https://lobste.rs/s/ukosa1/uk_users_lobsters_needs_your_help_with#c_wsr0az
Feb 11, 2025, 6:31 PM@rachelcoldicutt Out of curiosity, have we gotten any indication from Ofcom that Fediverse instances can even qualify as "low risk"? As far as I can tell we're all hit by the age assurance requirements thanks to pornography, and I'm hoping Ofcom will be willing to speak to that.