Jon Brodkin reports:
A lawyer for 4chan said the imageboard website’s operators will refuse to pay fines levied under the UK’s Online Safety Act.
“Ofcom’s notices create no legal obligations in the United States,” lawyer Preston Byrne told the BBC, according to an article yesterday. Byrne said the UK regulator’s investigation into 4chan is part of an “illegal campaign of harassment” against US tech firms. “4chan has broken no laws in the United States. My client will not pay any penalty,” he said.
In June, Ofcom said it opened an investigation into whether 4chan is taking required measures to prevent the site from hosting illegal content and from being used to commit or facilitate crimes. Ofcom announced on August 13 that it “issued 4chan Community Support LLC with a provisional notice of contravention” for failing to comply with two requests for information. Ofcom said it was continuing to investigate whether 4chan “has failed, or is failing, to comply with… duties to protect its users from illegal content.”
Read more at Ars Technica. The FTC has jumped into the general issue and has warned U.S. firms about complying with non-U.S. laws that violate U.S laws.