FAO Mods - The UK online safety bill that comes into effect on March 17th

Can we use Discord?

If so I’ll look into setting it up

mono-stereo Thanks for bringing this up Wal. It looks like it will be curtains for us here.

The link Wally posted looks to be scare-mongering. For starters, that forum has already posted an update saying that they have found a way to continue functioning:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/401988/#comment17640529

But a key thing I found is here. For small service providers (less than 70,000 active UK users) such as this one, it seems as if sufficient terms & conditions, plus basic moderating practices - mainly a complaint/report function, which this site already has, seems as if it’d be sufficient to comply:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/helping-small-services-navigate-the-online-safety-act/

"The more onerous requirements will fall upon the largest services with the highest reach and/or those services that are particularly high risk.

If organisations have carried out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and determined, with good reason, that the risks they face are low, they will only be expected to have basic but important measures to remove illegal content when they become aware of it. These include:

easy-to-find, understandable terms and conditions;
a complaints tool that allows users to report illegal or harmful material when they see it, backed up by a process to deal with those complaints;
the ability to review content and take it down quickly if they have reason to believe it is illegal; and
a specific individual responsible for compliance, who we can contact if we need to."

If you can just show that you’ve gone through the online risk assessment on the Ofcom website as per above, and have a moderating function with sufficient ts & cs, then I doubt there’d be much they could do.

I very much doubt they’ll spend much effort following up on any of this anyway - already it seems like Labour may end up watering down the bill even further to appease the US:

https://archive.ph/4MypB

I think part of this also turns on the extent to which the board is a “service”. There is a checking process to determine whether it would apply to us, which should be the first port of call - unless someone has done it already.

It says: “If your business provides an online service (a service made available over the internet), such as a website or an app, the Act may apply.” That might suggest a way to get around it. I can see why the other forum was scared by the broad scope but I see this as being aimed at sites that have a direct link with the public by virtue of the services it offers. Could be wrong though.

Edit: Plus what Hugo said about risk assessments.

hugopal this is useful, cheers Hugo.

Wally The chain of thought on the other forum I mentioned is that users with a grudge against the place could post something deliberately litigious then report it to the police to fuck the mods.

I could certainly see Flares doing that.

I don’t think that would necessarily result in ramifications for the site or the mods so long as the site has a report function in place allowing such content to be flagged and subsequently deleted. The only thing it may mean is that the mods may wish to be a bit more strict perhaps with what they allow to be posted until it becomes more clear how onerous and likely to be enforced the policy is.

But I think the only risk points for what currently gets typically posted here is making sure that no one posts that they hope another forum member kills themself, even if only in jest. Discussion of illegal substances will also need to be coded and ensured that it is not seen to be offering or pointing to any sales of said produce.

whatever Yes, there will need to be a clear terms and conditions alongside the moderation function, which basically just copies and pastes what the supposed illegal risk factors for this site are according to Ofcom’s online risk assessment tool. Maybe each new user will need to tick a box that they’ve read the Ts&Cs on account creation (can’t remember if this is already the case) and then probably make the Ts&Cs a sticky post at the top of the board.

Users should then be encouraged to report anything which may be deemed to be illegal content according to these guidelines.