Wikipedia took UK to court over the fear of being targeted, it was dismissed purely on the basis of “Well they haven’t done anything to you yet”. And Ofcom clearly hasn’t got the balls to do it.
Skavau
Piefed.social Staff
Community owner of !television@piefed.social and !obscuremusic@piefed.social
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Cake day: March 18th, 2025
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I just think this is a logistical dead-end for regulators who may rely on the chilling effect of the thought of being targeted rather than actually being targeted. Unless the Fediverse somehow becomes massive, I don’t see that it’ll ever enter their eyes. Especially as many places will be based in the USA who is the least likely country to implement these laws, and the most hostile to any threats from foreign regulators (see again the 4chan example).
Do they? There’s one thing to make it law, another thing to enforce it. OSA in the UK has been around since last July and managed to do nothing other than pick a fight with 4chan and get nowhere. I seem to recall someone mentioned Lemmy to Ofcom in a discussion regarding OSA and they were literally like “What’s a Lemmy?”
How on earth do you imagine a regulator is going to work out how to deal with 50+ federated instances (for instance)?
Yes? USA is the least likely to do this. Porn laws in various states don’t apply to social media.
Other attempts have been stuck in legislative hell, been unenforced or have court cases challenging their legality (Mississipi)