Fediverse

If you're using cloudflare you can block counties via that.

I'm also in the UK and run an instance - the problem is that the guidance is too large and overbearing. The stuff that actually mattered hadn't even been released by OFCOM last time I bothered looking, such as the risk assessment.

I guess we'll know more when they release the guidance on age verification - that will be what kills most sites off if they insist its required for all social media

Feddit UK post about this

The admins are hopeful at the moment that we will be able to comply without too much trouble

Does it really, practically, impact things?

If people had to obey the law of "every country that has any internet presence", site operators worldwide would have to do such silly things as ban women from using the internet while not sitting right next to their husbands, or who knows what other silly things as per the Sharia. So I don't really see how any such thing is to be taken at anything but grandposturing from boomer political parties, at face value.

Now, if you want to ban Bri'ish IP addresses, your hosting can take care of that. For the most capable ones it's just a flip of a switch. But do consider that in some cases that makes your site worse for everyone else worldwide as such rules are sometimes implemented via privacy-invading systems (eg.: yet another control that makes your site depend on Cloudflare).

I'm not a Brit (but worried similar stuff is coming here to America), but it sounds like you have to enforce those rules. Theoretically, from my high level understanding, would it be enough to have those rules in place, and when reported actively remove the content as a mod?

I can't tell exactly, but it sounds like the biggest thing is that there needs to be a way to remove the content quickly, which we have. Facebook is obviously an offender, where they have a "process" but it takes days and as we all know, 99% of the time they don't actually do anything.

As a higher more automated level, I'm guessing our automod stuff that most of us admins are using would probably be enough, or if not that some basic AI models.

It doesn't sound like they expect it to be perfect, here in the states they don't expect me to be perfect, but they damn well expect me to follow correct process if I do become aware of something. It's essentially A) I need to take reasonable preventative measures, like actively moderating, doing what I can automatically, banning bad users and removing content when needed and then B) Immediately taking action if I do become aware of anything, keeping evidence for the feds.

I have no idea about how people in the UK should react and I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding of it is that if no one involved in running your site is British, it's not hosted in the UK, and you don't have any kind of business relationships with people in the UK, you absolutely should not worry about it or take any action at all beyond making sure you don't sign any deals or offer any products for sale in that country.

They cannot legally or practically do anything to you beyond perhaps blocking access to your site somehow I suppose, and in the extremely unlikely event that they tried something crazy you'd be an international cause celebre with plenty of legal support available. Doing their dirty work for them by trying to block British IP addresses seems inadvisable.

This is already impacting futurology.today - one of the Mods is British, and because of this law doesn’t feel comfortable continuing. As they have back-end expertise with hosting, if they go, we may have to shut down the whole site.

Its good news that they are merely a mod and not an admin / op, then! That's why documenting and transfer of knowledge is important! If they don't feel capable of dealing with a stupid law, they should make themselves unnecessary to your community ASAP! Have them prepare to step down from the role by documenting everything that a replacement needs to be able to do, then as soon as another mod can test that the documentation works, derole them if that's what they want.

Simple. Don't be a company. Companies exist to sell stuff: the fediverse doesn't. There are a few other structures in the UK alone to circumvent this potential law, which is designed to combat large social media companies. And it won't affect outside the UK either, and with brexit - will anyone else bother enforcibg?