I’m just waiting for all UK users to be banned from anything that isn’t Facebook or X. It’s absolutely ridiculous and a huge win for big tech as it locks us in to their platforms and their platforms only. Those of us with a bit of tech knowledge will work around it but it’s infuriating.
Currently Twitter is doing the bare minimum by simply allowing UK users to bypass the age-checks by setting their location to another country.
The equivalent of a pop-up asking you if you’re 18 or older.
Back in the day, I was 18 for like five years.
half the internet is 45 years old this year.
At least do it Leisure Suit Larry style and ask three questions someone at least 18 should know.
Ahh, nostalgia. Thank you.
Just a reminder. Self-hosting is a hobby that is both useful and satisfying, and the skills you pick up will change how you see computers that are increasingly part of everything.
You probably won’t be going off-grid overnight, but the tech industry has spent 30 years promoting propaganda that ‘only skilled engineers should worry about what goes on under the hood’ and have conditioned us to expect tech to just be magic.
Fighting back means educating yourself, and that means grabbing an old laptop, learning how to install Linux on it, fire up a few Docker projects, and exploring all the options that opens up.
It will take a few weekends to get started, and it will require some upkeep. But for that price you will gain some sovereignty back over your digital life.
For extra credit and when ready you can pay $15 /year for a vanity domain (you’d only need one, as you can freely create an unrestricted number of subdomains), once done you move from being a serf to a digital landlord.
6th with 70 monthly active users https://piefed.fediverse.observer/list
Piefed.social has 949, piefed.world 222
Uhh totally unrelated but… how hard is it to get fedi platforms working over the alt internets, like tor/i2p/ipfs/etc? I’m sure somebody somewhere must be working on that, right?
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I’m confused, why are non-UK instances banning UK users? Are their admins located in the UK? Is anyone afraid of being extradited to UK because of their local laws? Do you block Saudi Arabia too because you can’t guarantee blasphemy laws are going to be upholded?
They believe that Ofcom could pressure their hosts to cut their services off if they don’t comply with the act, or believe they could be fined.
How would that even work in another country? Wouldn’t Saudi Arabia pressure hosts for breaking blasphemy laws?
Saudi Arabia has no soft power here. UK does.
Not saying that UK will here (I think they won’t), but the relationship dynamics are a bit different.
Saudi Arabia has plenty of soft and hard power too. Possibly more so than UK. I think we’re getting overly dramatic. UK doesn’t have enough pull to start extraditing thousands of people for not complying with their weirdo laws.
Not when it comes to tech. You think the USA would let Saudi Arabia force the total shut-down of a USA-based site because they allowed people to make fun of Islam? Come on. Saudi Arabia just quiety blocks sites.
UK doesn’t have enough pull to start extraditing thousands of people for not complying with their weirdo laws.
I agree with you there too. The forum owners here fear Ofcom pressuring their hosts to force compliance, not extradition. I think its misguided and unlikely (especially for small arms of the fediverse) but it is what it is.
Ain’t had no job to pass a bad law for their citizens. Now our chaps have to use VPN to come and talk with us! It’s sad!