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Investigation into 4chan and its compliance with duties to protect its users
- tonfreed 1y agoGreat. Now let's see them enforce it.
- rahidz 1y ago4chan's response (through lawyers): https://x.com/prestonjbyrne/status/1956391746029428914 https://x.com/prestonjbyrne/status/1956391746029428914 Full text: "BYRNE & STORM, P.C. ATTORNEYS-AT-LAW Re: Statement Regarding Ofcom's Reported Provisional Notice - 4chan Community Support LLC Byrne & Storm, P.C. ( @ByrneStorm ) and Coleman Law, P.C. ( @RonColeman ) represent 4chan Community Support LLC ("4chan"). According to press reports, the U.K. Office of Communications ("Ofcom") has issued a provisional notice under the Online Safety Act alleging a contravention by 4chan and indicating an intention to impose a penalty of £20,000, plus daily penalties thereafter. 4chan is a United States company, incorporated in Delaware, with no establishment, assets, or operations in the United Kingdom. Any attempt to impose or enforce a penalty against 4chan will be resisted in U.S. federal court. American businesses do not surrender their First Amendment rights because a foreign bureaucrat sends them an e-mail. Under settled principles of U.S. law, American courts will not enforce foreign penal fines or censorship codes. If necessary, we will seek appropriate relief in U.S. federal court to confirm these principles. United States federal authorities have been briefed on this matter. The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, was reportedly warned by the White House to cease targeting Americans with U.K. censorship codes (according to reporting in the Telegraph on July 30th). Despite these warnings, Ofcom continues its illegal campaign of harassment against American technology firms. A political solution to this matter is urgently required and that solution must come from the highest levels of American government. We call on the Trump Administration to invoke all diplomatic and legal levers available to the United States to protect American companies from extraterritorial censorship mandates. Our client reserves all rights."
- Barbing 1y agoThanks - so instead they’ll be sued by someone under those new US state laws that cover sites featuring some % of adult content? (There was a worrisome blog post someone shared here on HN a few weeks ago.)
- arcfour 1y agoNo.
- ivan_gammel 1y agoIt’s funny. Their “Advertise” page explicitly mentions UK on demographics section (7% of users). Both Advertise and Rules pages explicitly mention local along with US laws. It looks like they actually do business in UK serving ads to UK users and thus should be subject to local laws themselves.
- narrator 1y agoIf they want their assets, they will have to use U.S courts to get them and U.S courts will refuse to enforce British law that violates the first amendment. It's pretty simple actually. If they had assets in Britain, then they could get to them, but they don't.
- ivan_gammel 1y agoThey can just treat 4chan as malware server or a drug cartel. There exist sanction mechanisms against foreign entities that do not use local law enforcement in which case opinion of US courts will be irrelevant.
- achierius 1y agoBut it's not, and so the treaties to which the US is party for those cases would not apply. What sanction methods are you thinking of that could get to US citizens on US soil without US governmental consent?
- boppo1 1y ago4chan will win, american techbros will celebrate, then in a year the US will pass some sort of KYC. Surveillance is inevitable.
- userbinator 1y agoOnly with that defeatist attitude will it be inevitable.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- schoen 1y agoA great and inspiring example is the SOPA/PIPA thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act#Opposition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act#Opposit... Now, there are other less inspiring examples (e.g. SESTA/FOSTA)! and this didn't somehow form a durable political consensus (or an entrenched legal principle), but people looking at this issue in advance would have thought, and did think, that obviously this legislation would pass. And then it didn't.
- MikeTheGreat 1y agogenuine question: what is a "KYC"?
- sciurus 1y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer
- MikeTheGreat 1y agoThanks!
- benchloftbrunch 1y agoKnow your customer
- ranger_danger 1y agoWhy do they think that organizations who operate completely outside of the UK, accept no money from UK citizens or otherwise do business there, fall within their jurisdiction? I think realistically all that could happen is they tell ISPs to block it.
- Retr0id 1y ago> they tell ISPs to block it Seems likely. And then that won't work, and they'll tell ISPs to block VPN traffic too.
- nubinetwork 1y agoI wouldn't put it past them, they've already ran tv news pieces (or maybe it was an ad, I don't watch tv, let alone British tv) basically saying that if you use a VPN, that you're not thinking of the children.
- madaxe_again 1y agoYou wouldn’t steal a car…
- bloak 1y agoISPs blocking it will mostly work, I think. Most people can't be bothered with a VPN so if 4chan is inaccessible they'll just read/watch something else instead.
- Retr0id 1y agoIn the days following the enforcement of age verification legislation, VPNs were trending in the UK app store charts, above age verification apps. Even today NordVPN is in the #5 spot, above Uber and Google.
- theodric 1y agoI think you severely underestimate the tech savviness and community-seeking of 4chan users. They'll figure it out.
- rr808 1y agoUSA is all about free speech because the big tech companies are in USA and behind closed doors do what the US Government tells them. If Meta/Google/Twitter/TikTok were foreign companies they'd likely be banned or regulated to be allowed to operate here.
- daft_pink 1y agoPretty sure the USA position has to do with the us constitution. Just saying
- aredox 1y ago[flagged]
- the_third_wave 1y agoCould you give some examples which refer to the activities you accuse him of? Examples of actual violations of the Constitution of the United States, that is, not just examples of him deciding things you happen to disagree with.
- aredox 1y agoEasy: the hundreds of millions of dollars he has extorted from universities, media companies and law firms for "saying things he happens to disagree with". https://www.axios.com/2025/07/30/trump-harvard-settlement-dei-lawsuit https://www.axios.com/2025/07/30/trump-harvard-settlement-de... https://www.axios.com/2025/04/12/big-law-pro-bono-legal-work-trump https://www.axios.com/2025/04/12/big-law-pro-bono-legal-work... https://www.axios.com/2025/08/18/trump-jobs-report-dc-crime-data https://www.axios.com/2025/08/18/trump-jobs-report-dc-crime-... https://www.ibanet.org/Trumps-assault-on-the-First-Amendment https://www.ibanet.org/Trumps-assault-on-the-First-Amendment https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/us-free-speech-rights-trump https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/us-free-spee... Why did Mahmoud Khalil spend 3 months in prison for and missed the birth of his child, again? And Rümeysa Öztürk?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 1y agoIt worked quite well in the reverse direction for BetOnSports. Companies tend to underestimate the reach of governments, even governments they are not nominally the subject of.
- torium 1y agoDisgusting. If I access 4chan only through tor, will I be safe from these tirants?
- spookie 1y agoYou'll just stick out like a sore thumb
- torium 1y agoCould you expand? How does using tor makes you stick out like a sore thumb?
- userbinator 1y agoIt's been a long time since I've had anything to do with 4chan but I believe Tor was blocked because of how often it was used to post illegal (in the US) content.
- ranger_danger 1y agoIt works for reading at least, no idea about posting.
- Hizonner 1y agoSomehow I feel like Ofcom and 4chan deserve each other.
- IlivedinUK 1y ago[flagged]
- bbg2401 1y agoWhy has this hysterical hyperbole become the norm when discussing the UK? It feels like a prolonged disinformation attack.
- dzhiurgis 1y agoWhich part is disinformation? Personally I find it a bit hilarious, that's about it. I've lived in UK, originally from Eastern Europe and now live in NZ and been working and unfortunately following US politics for a bit so kinda interesting to see observe from outside.
- verzali 1y agoYes, and this account is especially suspicious. Only one comment, "lived in UK", yet they make basic errors in how they use English, and "ugly"? Clearly they've never seen the English countryside.
- Jigsy 1y agoAnon must be quaking in their boots.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]