A battle over the United Kingdom's Online Safety Act (OSA) heated up Monday as UK regulator Ofcom fined the notorious image-hosting board 4chan about $26,000 for failing to provide a risk assessment detailing the potential harms of illegal content hosted on its forum.
In a press release provided to Ars, Ofcom said 4chan refused to respond to two requests for information that the regulator considered "routine." The first asked for the risk assessment and the second for 4chan's "qualifying worldwide revenue."
4chan was anticipating the Monday fine, noting in a lawsuit—which was jointly filed with the online trolling forum Kiwi Farms in August and seeks to permanently enjoin Ofcom from enforcing OSA—that Ofcom had made it clear that because 4chan ignored Ofcom's emails, the fine was coming.
Now, 4chan has 60 days to hand over the information Ofcom requested while risking incurring about $130 in additional daily penalties.
If 4chan continues to ignore Ofcom, the forum could be blocked in the UK. And 4chan could face even bigger fines totaling about $23 million or 10 percent of 4chan’s worldwide turnover, whichever is higher. 4chan also faces potential arrest and/or "imprisonment for a term of up to two years," the lawsuit said.
It seems likely that 4chan won't engage with Ofcom, arguing in the lawsuit that Ofcom is seeking to "control" the Internet, which is "predominantly an American innovation." A lawyer for 4chan, Ronald Coleman, previously told the BBC that Ofcom's enforcement of OSA threatened "the free speech rights of every American."
UK’s “lifeline” is unconstitutional, 4chan says
Specifically, 4chan opposes the OSA's risk assessment requirement. Forecasting the risk posed if users encounter various forms of disfavored content would allow the UK to overstep and censor "speech and content published and distributed in the United States and which is protected by the Free Speech clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution," 4chan and Kiwi Farms argued.