Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!newsgrouper.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Colin Macleod <user7@newsgrouper.org.invalid>
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
Subject: Re: Newsgrouper Update
References: <1729782469-7@newsgrouper.org.uk>
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2025 15:14:23 GMT
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Sorry, but I've now decided I need to block access to Newsgrouper from the
UK, starting 16th March. This is because I find it impractical to meet the
requirements of the UK's Online Safety Act, which comes into effect then.
See https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety and https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk

I've done a fair bit more homework on this, reading some of the guidance,
but not all the thousands of pages that Ofcom has produced, and following
their online seminars. Unfortunately very many aspects remain vague, and
requests to Ofcom to provide clearer guidelines get answers like "It depends
on your circumstances", "We can't advise individual sites", "You have to
make the judgement", etc..

I'm afraid my conclusion is that trying to comply with the OSA is just too
much effort.  It's not just the initial risk assessments and policy/system
changes. It's also that one is then required to respond to any reports that
come in and judge whether that content is really illegal. You are required
to remove anything that *is* illegal under a long list of categories, but
also to protect users' right to freedom of speech. It's easy to think of
cases where this balance could be very tricky. I simply don't want to get
into the business of having to police other people's speech.

Ofcom have stated unequivocally that geo-blocking the UK will put a site
outside the scope of the Act. So I put up a simple survey on the newsgrouper
site, this appeared for UK users only, and I let it run for two weeks.
There was just one question and a space for comments. I got 11 responses,
as follows:

   How would a UK block affect you?                    Answers
1: Not Concerned, I can follow Usenet by other means.      1
2: An Annoyance, but not the end of the world.             5
3: Oh No, that would be a disaster!                        5

The comments were generally disappointed, but some also expressed
understanding. So blocking UK access would be a real inconvenience to
5 people. I regret that, but they may be able to use one of the other web
interfaces to Usenet, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_Usenet#Web-based_sites_and_popularity
Also UK people are only about 15% of my users now.

I have seen comments that having a .uk address is enough to bring a site
into the scope of the act. I'm not convinced about that, but to be on the
safe side I have reregistered my site as newsgrouper.org with a redirect
from newsgrouper.org.uk .

My software is available at:
https://chiselapp.com/user/cmacleod/repository/newsgrouper/home
so if anyone else wants to take on the job of running an instance that would
remain open to UK users, they are welcome to do so.

-- 
Colin Macleod ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ https://cmacleod.me.uk

Please rate your Usenet experience today:  :-D  :-)  :-/  :-(  :-O