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US websites 4Chan and Kiwi Farms have filed a lawsuit in the UK against the UK media regulator Ofcom, claiming its enforcement of the new Online Safety Act violates the First Amendment rights of Americans.
The Online Safety Act became law in October 2023, but its provisions related to “illegal” content did not take effect until March of this year. The Act requires online platforms to self-censor to protect internet users in the UK from “illegal” and “harmful” material.
Sites were required to file a self-assessment with the UK government by the end of March.
The Act, passed by the previous Conservative government, was intended to prevent children from being exposed to pornography and graphic content on the internet.
The lawsuit, which was filed this week in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, claims that Ofcom ordered 4chan and Kiwifarms to comply with its rules, despite having no presence in the UK.
“This lawsuit seeks to restrain Ofcom’s conduct and its continuing egregious violations of Americans’ civil rights, including, without limitation, to the right of freedom of speech,” the filing states.
It claims Ofcom sent “threatening communications” to the 4Chan, Kiwifarms and other US companies that “interfere with their constitutional rights and business operation.”
“Ofcom’s ambitions are to regulate internet communications for the entire world, regardless of where these websites are based or whether they have any connection to the UK,” the filing continues, adding that Ofcom threatened a fine of £20,000—around $27,000—and subsequent fines of £100—about $135—every day for a maximum of 60 days.
American lawyer Preston Byrne, who is representing the two websites, said on X: “If someone in the UK calls me on the telephone, I am not suddenly teleported to England and subject to its rules. When someone in the UK navigates to a US webserver, that server isn’t teleported to England either.”
There are “literally a zillion ways that the UK could achieve the stated aims of the Online Safety Act without censoring the global web,” he said.
Byrne explained that the law is easily circumvented through the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and risks “wrecking the UK’s global reputation.
Footage of the current protests has been blocked on X for British users after the Act came into effect.
Before the introduction of the Online Safety Act, X stated that it would use various methods, including “email-based estimation” to assess whether a user is likely to be an adult or not.
The Online Safety Act mandates fines of £18 million or up to 10% of a company’s turnover if a company violates the Act.
