The UK Online Safety Act comes into effect today.

Its onerous duties may cause many small sites, blogs and fedi instances to shut down or geoblock UK users when faced with potential fines and penalties.

This won't keep children safe. It'll benefit large platforms like Facebook and X that are laying waste to content moderation.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/14/online_safety_act/

Moderation tools I wish were available at the user level:

1) the ability to reject and remove unwelcome comments on my thread.

2) the ability to send a toot with comments closed entirely, not everything has to be a discussion/argument.

The UK Online Safety Act burdens small sites with duties and penalties that they can't shoulder. They'll shut down instead, stripping us of net plurality.

There’s a simple solution:

Exempt small, safely run blogs, forums and fedi instances
The government can do this now

The duties start TOMORROW – Write to your MP

#SaveOurSites

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

BBC: Keep kids off Roblox if you’re worried, its CEO tells parents. “Parents who are worried about their children being on Roblox should not let them use it, the chief executive of the gigantic gaming platform has said. The site, which is the most popular in the UK among young gamers aged eight to 12, has been dogged by claims of some children being exposed to explicit or harmful content […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/03/15/bbc-keep-kids-off-roblox-if-youre-worried-its-ceo-tells-parents/

Saddling small sites with the same duties as huge platforms means many will shut down in a hammer blow to net plurality.

We'll be left with the Sophie’s choice of monopoly services; the incubators of online harms.

URGENT: The UK government must change the Online Safety Act to protect safe, non-commercial blogs, forums and fediverse.

Write to your MP to #SaveOurSites

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

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

Protect Net Plurality!

Broad brush duties under the UK Online Safety Act threaten any website with possible penalties.

Small, safe sites can't shoulder this burden. We'll see the lights going out on blogs, Fedi instances and forums from 17 March with a devastating impact for online communities.

The Fediverse is under attack!

We must #SaveOurSites

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/save-our-sites-deadline-17-march/

The clock is running down to save encryption

Will you join over 750 people who've used our tool to reply to Ofcom's consultation on implementing message scanning powers in the UK?

Stop the attack on end-to-end encryption!

ACT NOW before the consultation closes at 5pm

#PracticeSafeText

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

Carpe DM ?

End-to-end encryption = online safety. It keeps what we send on messaging apps secure from hackers and predators.

Tell Ofcom NOT to implement message scanning powers in their consultation.

You have until 5pm TODAY!

#PracticeSafeText

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

Do you want hackers and predators to slide into your DMs?

That's what would happen if message scanning tech is forced onto messaging apps.

Ofcom's consultation on powers that'd break end-to-end encryption closes on Monday!

Use our tool to tell them #PracticeSafeText

#e2ee #encryption #onlinesafety #onlinesafetyact #ukpolitics #ukpol #cybersecurity #security #privacy #ofcom #whatsapp #signal

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

#women #livestreaming #OnlineSafety

'It’s not up for debate: Female content creators deal with more egregious behavior online than male creators. Women have spoken up about having to combat everything from lewd remarks in stream chat to death threats and deepfakes.

And sometimes, this behavior crosses over from online to IRL.'

https://www.tubefilter.com/2025/03/06/is-paying-private-security-just-another-cost-of-being-a-female-streamer/

Save Encryption. Save the World

Only by blocking message scanning technology on messaging apps can we ensure online safety!

End-to-end encryption prevents predators and hackers from weeding their way into our private lives.

We must #PracticeSafeText

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

Small, low-risk sites should be out of scope so long as providers have a reasonable belief that children will not come across harmful material on them, say campaigners.

https://www.computing.co.uk/news/2025/legislation-regulation/call-to-exempt-small-sites-from-the-online-safety-act