Who's trying to break the internet today?

Ungnome

Ungnome

Grand Empress of the Empire of One Square Foot.
Citizen
Yea, I've often wondered how countries can actually pull of fining a company that doesn't even have offices within them. Seems like a lot of wasted work for nothing. It's a bit different for US states to sue business in other US states due to lawyers twisting things so that interstate commerce laws apply(even when, IMHO, they shouldn't) But suing organizations in a different sovereign nation all together and expecting it to work just baffles me to no end. Granted I'm no fan of 4chan, but in this case they are in their right.
 
wonko the sane?

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
I mean, there needs to be some kind of regionalized ability to act when you can access the service in literally every region.
 
Ungnome

Ungnome

Grand Empress of the Empire of One Square Foot.
Citizen
I disagree on that. If you don't want the people of your country to access a website, there are other methods you can use than trying to force your laws on an entity outside your sovereignty. Otherwise you end up with North Korea suing every western media company because they aren't following North Korean content guidelines and a North Korean could stumble upon said content. I'm generally against the balkanization of the internet, but unfortunately if countries keep passing laws like they are it's gonna have to happen.(it already has happened, really, if you look at things like national firewalls some regimes have implemented.)
 
CoffeeHorse

CoffeeHorse

Hanging in there
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
OFCOM haven't explained their theory as to how they have any jurisdiction outside the UK. They just send additional emails whining that their demands have not been complied with.

I hope they keep trying. I hope this flips a few politicians into opposing this age verification crap if for no other reason than to spite the UK for thinking they have any right to do this.
 
wonko the sane?

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
Ungnome said:
I disagree on that. If you don't want the people of your country to access a website, there are other methods you can use than trying to force your laws on an entity outside your sovereignty. Otherwise you end up with North Korea suing every western media company because they aren't following North Korean content guidelines and a North Korean could stumble upon said content. I'm generally against the balkanization of the internet, but unfortunately if countries keep passing laws like they are it's gonna have to happen.(it already has happened, really, if you look at things like national firewalls some regimes have implemented.)
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Oh no, I mean within reason. If your service was used to break the law in a region other than where it's hosted (and assuming it's a reasonable law, like conspiracy, fraud, murder, you know, one of the things we all agree shouldn't be legal.) the region should be able to sue you over using your service to break the law. At the very least: compliance to moderation to prevent future illegality.

Being a douche online isn't a crime, but aiding and abetting (even by just not preventing others from criming.) is.

But ofcom is off it's ******* rocker. 4chan gonna 4chan.
 
Anonymous X

Anonymous X

Well-known member
Citizen
Unfortunately, the OFCOM demands, as you can imagine, work on websites located in the UK – many small-scale hobbyist web forums have closed over the last few years, many which were around for decades, because they had no way practical means to adhere to the regulations.

(Yes, I’m very strongly against the so-called Online Safety Act.)
 
CoffeeHorse

CoffeeHorse

Hanging in there
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Remember that class clown and occasional bully who sorta ruined your education? Remember how much of your time was wasted because of his disruptive antics?

Remember how you still sometimes rooted for him despite him being a jerk to you, because there was that one obnoxious overbearing teacher who kinda deserved his antics, and his creativity in how he ruined that teacher's day was kinda awesome?

4chan is that class clown / bully. OFCOM (and the UK government in general) is that obnoxious overbearing teacher who deserves it.
 
Pocket

Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
Social casino apps are online games where users can buy virtual chips with real money but can’t ever cash out their winnings.
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I like to imagine owners of real casinos hearing about this and thinking "You mean we've been wasting billions of dollars on real cash payouts when this whole time there are loads of people who'd just as gladly keep throwing their money away just for a shot at a pat on the back and a hearty congratulations???"
 
Dekafox

Dekafox

Fabulously Foxy Dragon
Citizen
www.eff.org

Act Now to Stop California’s Paternalistic and Privacy-Destroying Social Media Ban

California lawmakers are fast-tracking A.B. 1709—a sweeping bill that would ban anyone under 16 from using social media and force every user, regardless of age, to verify their identity before accessing social platforms. In the name of “safety,” this bill would destroy online anonymity, expose...
www.eff.org www.eff.org
Looks like another ID Verification bill is going through California, requiring all social media to age-verify with their actual IDs, and also seems to have an age-ban like Australia's. Depending on how they define it, it could include things like forums.
 
NovaSaber

NovaSaber

Well-known member
Citizen
I'm not really in a state of mind to understand all the details of this, but I'm pretty sure "Fandom" (Wikia)'s new "privacy policy" says they can sell basically any of the data that they collect.

And on GameFAQs (since when has Wikia owned that?), they've got the "accept" button covering the words "may not apply"...

Screenshot 2026-05-06 220154.png
 
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Ungnome

Ungnome

Grand Empress of the Empire of One Square Foot.
Citizen
Fandom.com has been a cancer for awhile now. Gobbling up wiki after wiki. Not really surprised. Frankly I miss the days of smaller, independent websites.
 
Tuxedo Prime

Tuxedo Prime

Well-known member
Citizen
Heck, I'd happily copy my fan-made content over to Miraheze or Shoutwiki if (a) I thought anyone would build upon it, and (b) Shoutwiki was allowing new builds.
 
Dekafox

Dekafox

Fabulously Foxy Dragon
Citizen
I know some wikis that have moved off or no longer live there. One that comes to mind for me is that the wiki for Star Trek Online used to be on there but years ago moved to their own hosting and domain(and have been fighting an ongoing battle in the Google search rankings since). There's also UESP for Elder Scrolls stuff, but that wasn't ever on Fandom I think? Also wasn't the TF wiki on fandom at one point?
 
NovaSaber

NovaSaber

Well-known member
Citizen
TF Wiki, Bulbapedia, and Yugipedia have all left it; the first two back when it was till called Wikia, and the latter more recently.

TF Wiki's situation is complicated because the old site is still up too (apparently someone who wasn't an admin pre-move gained administrator access, or something like that?), or at least it was the last time I heard it mentioned.
 
Dekafox

Dekafox

Fabulously Foxy Dragon
Citizen
Yeah, that was Star Trek Online's issue too, in that they couldn't shut down the old one when they moved, so google results kept surfacing the old one. Not sure if it still does or not.

In other news, Google is looking to train users to get phished by scanning random QR codes:
cloud.google.com

Introducing Google Cloud Fraud Defense, the next evolution of reCAPTCHA | Google Cloud Blog

Today at Next ‘26, we’re launching Google Cloud Fraud Defense, the trust platform for the agentic web and the next evolution of reCAPTCHA.
cloud.google.com cloud.google.com
1778183302253.png


Because scanning random popups of QR codes can never go wrong!
 
abates

abates

unfortunate shark issues
Citizen
NovaSaber said:
TF Wiki, Bulbapedia, and Yugipedia have all left it; the first two back when it was till called Wikia, and the latter more recently.

TF Wiki's situation is complicated because the old site is still up too (apparently someone who wasn't an admin pre-move gained administrator access, or something like that?), or at least it was the last time I heard it mentioned.
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Fandom doesn't take down the old wiki when wikis move off, unfortunately. A big issue is that Fandom has no oversight when, say, a new user comes along and realises that a really easy way to contribute to the Fandom TF wiki is to just copy content from TFWiki. This is in violation of the licenses both wiki operate under, but unless there's an active administrator there checking every edit (Which over the years there hasn't been a lot of the time because administrators there have come and gone) that doesn't mean much.
 
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