onlinesafetyact

📢 The UK Online Safety Act claims another victim: Haiku OS community forums

From March 2025, UK users will lose access to Haiku's forums due to the unsustainable legal requirements of the new Online Safety Act. Small open-source communities shouldn't have to choose between legal risks and serving their users.

Read more about this concerning development and its implications for open source communities:
https://www.desktoponfire.com/haiku_inc/701/open-source-under-pressure-haiku-forums-exit-uk-over-safety-act/

#OpenSource #HaikuOS #DigitalRights #OnlineSafetyAct #UK #FOSS

❌ You can't trade privacy to prevent crime.

⚠️ Message scanning tech punches a hole in everyone's security. Surveillance organisations, hackers, scammers and predators alike will be able to creep into your life.

Read our longread on the need to protect end-to-end encryption ⬇️

#PracticeSafeText #e2ee #encryption #OnlineSafetyAct #privacy #security

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/the-case-for-encryption/

🚨 Time is Running Out to Save Encryption 🔐

Ofcom is consulting on implementing message scanning powers in the UK Online Safety Act.

This would break end-to-end encryption on the messaging apps we all use!

⏰ CLOSES Monday 10 March, 5pm.

Use our tool to tell Ofcom #PracticeSafeText 💬

ACT NOW ⬇️

https://action.openrightsgroup.org/48-hours-tell-ofcom-practice-safe-text

#e2ee #encryption #OnlineSafetyAct #ukpolitics #ukpol #privacy #ofcom #security #cybersecurity #whatsapp #signal

Will the last small site turn off the lights?

The UK Online Safety Act imposes the same duties and penalties on blogs, forums and fedi instances as huge platforms.

Many small, safely moderated sites will shut down or block UK users.

Crushing competition is the last thing we need for a safer Internet!

Act now before 17 March ⬇️

#SaveOurSites 🌐

https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp

#fediverse #onlinesafety #onlinesafetyact #mastodon #activitypub #ukpolitics #ukpol #netplurality

Wikipedia @wikimediauk are going to court over the UK Online Safety Act!

Saddling platforms with hefty duties and penalties under the new regime will cause many safe sites to fold.

We can't lose the best of the web due to laws that were meant to tackle the worst of it.

#SaveOurSites

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62j2gr8866o

#OnlineSafetyAct #OSA #NetPlurality #ukpol #ukpolitics #wikipedia #freedomofexpression

Bluesky will be age-gating content for UK users. It’s your privacy that pays.

The UK Online Safety Act has unleashed an unregulated market in age verification.

That we have to do these intrusive checks with countless providers for different platforms is dangerous.

https://www.theverge.com/news/704468/bluesky-age-verification-uk-online-safety-act

#onlinesafetyact #ageverification #ageassurance #privacy #dataprotection #data #biometrics #onlinesafety #ukpolitics #ukpol #bluesky

This week's net.wars, "A thousand small safety acts", talks to lawyer @neil about the Online Safety Act's impact on the community Internet - the small web boards, forums, chat channels, projects, and volunteer services: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/06/20/a-thousand-small-safety-acts/ #NetWars #FreeSpeech #OnlineSafetyAct #UKPol

In this week's net.wars, "Cautionary tales", I consider becoming a child for the purposes of age verification, and Substack becomes a unicorn. Dare we predict enshittification? https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/07/18/cautionary-tales/ #NetWars #OnlineSafetyAct #AgeVerification #Substack #VentureCapital #HumanRights

Today - 25 July - is the deadline for user-to-user services subject to the UK's Online Safety Act to have "highly effective age assurance" in place for UK users, if the site's content requires it. (Not all sites/content require age assurance.)

*Please* be careful, especially if you are in the UK.

Think before handing over ID documents, and be especially mindful of mistyped URLs and other scams, trying to obtain your personal data for phishing or blackmail purposes.

#OnlineSafetyAct