4chan launches legal action against Ofcom in US
Ofcom told the BBC: "We are aware of this lawsuit. Under the Online Safety Act, any service that has links with the UK now has duties to protect UK users, no matter where in the world it is based."
"American citizens do not surrender our constitutional rights just because Ofcom sends us an e-mail," Preston Byrne of law firm Byrne & Storm said.
Their legal complaint filed in a Washington DC Federal Court seeks a legal ban on the communications regulator enforcing or attempting to enforce the Online Safety Act against them in the US.
Lawyers representing controversial websites 4chan and Kiwi Farms have filed a legal case against the UK Online Safety Act enforcer Ofcom.
A service doesn't have to be based in the UK to be subject to the act, and therefore face action from Ofcom.
It could be enough for it to have a significant number of UK users, or to have the UK as a target market.
But 4chan's lawyers want the US court to rule that US business with no presence in the UK are not subject to British legislation.
The also want it to declare that the Online Safety Act is at odds with the US constitution's free speech protections.
Lawyers for online message board 4chan recently told the BBC that Ofcom had provisionally decided to impose a £20,000 fine "with daily penalties thereafter" for failing to comply with two requests for information.
Ofcom alleges 4chan has not complied with the act with respect to the requests for information, but has not confirmed the provisional fine.
It has also stated that it continues to investigate 4chan over whether it is complying with Online Safety Act duties to protect its users from illegal content.
The US legal case is being brought on behalf of 4Chan Community Support LLC, and Lolcow LLC, the corporate entities behind 4chan and online forum, Kiwi Farms.
4chan has often been at the heart of online controversies in its 22 years, including misogynistic campaigns and conspiracy theories.
Users of Kiwi Farms have previously been linked to a number of serious incidents of harassment and trolling.
Both sites operate "fully in compliance" with US laws, the legal complaint says.
According to the filing, Ofcom has written twice to Kiwi Farms, beginning with a March letter telling it to comply with Online Safety Act duties requiring it to "carry out an illegal content risk assessment" and submit the record of that assessment to Ofcom by 17 April 2025.