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4chan and Kiwi Farms Sue the UK Over its Age Verification Law (www.404media.co)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk
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4chan and Kiwi Farms sued the United Kingdom’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) over its age verification law in U.S. federal court Wednesday, fulfilling a promise it announced on August 23. In the lawsuit, 4chan and Kiwi Farms claim that threats and fines they have received from Ofcom “constitute foreign judgments that would restrict speech under U.S. law.”

Both entities say in the lawsuit that they are wholly based in the U.S. and that they do not have any operations in the United Kingdom and are therefore not subject to local laws. Ofcom’s attempts to fine and block 4chan and Kiwi Farms, and the lawsuit against Ofcom, highlight the messiness involved with trying to restrict access to specific websites or to force companies to comply with age verification laws.

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[–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago

And conversely, a US court doesn't have jurisdiction over a UK watchdog. So I'm not sure what this lawsuit hopes to achieve, other than reiterating what you said.

The UK does not have jurisdiction over foreign companies. They only have jurisdiction over UK companies, which may include UK arms of multinationals.

The UK does have jurisdiction over the internet within the UK and lawmakers where aware that there is little they can do to compel foreign operations to comply. That's why the OSA gives Ofcom powers to disrupt these operations by compelling other businesses to take action.

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