Great Britain: Media regulator investigates possible law violations at 4chan
Ofcom has received complaints that illegal activities are taking place on the notorious image board 4chan and has therefore launched an investigation.
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The British media regulator has launched investigations into the notorious image board 4chan, seven file-sharing services and a porn provider. The Office of Communications (Ofcom) announced on Tuesday that the investigation was prompted by complaints about alleged illegal activities. 4chan and the file-sharing services had not responded to requests for information from the authority, although they were obliged to do so.
The investigation proceedings that have now been initiated concern the question of how 4chan deals with illegal content and whether depictions of child abuse are distributed via the file-sharing services, the authority added. First Time Videos is also suspected of not adequately protecting children.
High penalties possible
The authority wants to find out whether the services have implemented "appropriate security measures" to protect users in the UK from illegal content and activities. It will also examine whether the platforms have adequately assessed potential risks. If Ofcom finds breaches of the law, fines of 18 million pounds or 10 percent of global turnover can be imposed.
According to Ofcom, First Time Videos operates two porn platforms. The authority is now investigating whether their age verification is sufficient to protect children from pornography.
Videos by heise
4chan has been notorious for its controversial content for years. Posts are made anonymously by default, copyrights are ignored and posts with politically extreme and anti-Semitic content are tolerated. 4chan is the source of many memes, but also the starting point for numerous problematic internet phenomena, such as the conspiracy narrative surrounding "QAnon".
In mid-April, the site suddenly went offline after internal data had possibly been tapped for months. The site only went back online after almost two weeks.
(mho)
