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Lobsters blocking UK users because of the Online Safety Act

109 comments

While poor and despotic countries have written laws to curtail freedom of speech internationally online (usually a broadly over-enforced “no criticizing the rulers”), as a practical matter those have been vanishingly unlikely to be enforced against Western citizens. While the inaccuracy of IP databases and availability of VPNs mean that this can’t be perfectly accurate, unambiguously blocking UK occupants as effectively as we can is the only course I see to substantially reduce the risk the OSA is enforced against the site. There are a lot of distracting off-topic rabbit holes here like recent political events, international diplomacy, defining “free speech”, pretending to practice UK law, and many more - please do try to stay focused on the existential problem at hand.

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