Controversial imageboard 4chan is refusing to pay the fines demanded by UK regulator Ofcom, following the country’s sweeping net regulation bill, the Online Safety Act, which came into effect last month. Its legal team has now called on the Trump administration to help protect it from “extraterritorial censorship.”
The Online Safety Act aims to protect children from harmful content online—such as pornography or self-harm promoting material—by requiring citizens to submit official ID and selfies to access adult content. Ofcom opened the investigation earlier this month due to 4chan failing to comply with its requests for information. According to the BBC, the regulator planned to hit 4chan with an initial fine of £20,000, followed by daily penalties.
Preston Byrne, managing partner of law firm Byrne & Storm, told BBC News that Ofcom’s notices “create no legal obligations in the United States” and called its investigation an “illegal campaign of harassment” against US tech firms.
“4chan has broken no laws in the United States—my client will not pay any penalty,” Byrne said. The law firm said in a post on X that, as 4chan is incorporated in the US, it is protected by First Amendment rights. It added that 4chan would seek “appropriate relief” in US federal court if necessary, and that US authorities had been “briefed” on the matter.
“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.”
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In its two decades on the internet, 4chan has gained infamy for its role in numerous high-profile celebrity cyberattacks and data breaches, its reputation as a hotbed of extremist viewpoints, targeted online harassment campaigns, and as the birthplace of some of the internet’s best-known memes.
Many of those in the Trump Administration have already signaled willingness to push back against The Online Safety Act if necessary. Earlier this week, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent a letter to almost a dozen social media companies, including Meta, Apple, and Google owner Alphabet, which said that the Online Safety Act could “erode Americans’ freedoms and subject them to myriad harms, such as surveillance by foreign governments and an increased risk of identity theft and fraud.”
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He added that “censoring Americans to comply with a foreign power’s laws, demands, or expected demands” could violate US law.
A number of other US websites have moved against the online safety legislation, including Wikipedia’s parent organization. Earlier this month, the UK’s High Court dismissed the Wikimedia Foundation’s legal challenge to the bill, which highlighted how it could put users’ privacy at risk, and allow “potentially malicious” users to block unverified editors and spread disinformation.
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About Will McCurdy
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