4chan challenges UK age verification laws as censorship

WASHINGTON (CN) — A pair of troll forum websites, 4chan and Kiwi Farms, sued a United Kingdom regulatory agency on Wednesday, arguing its efforts to enforce the Online Safety Act amount to an attack on the American companies’ free speech rights.

The companies filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the UK Office of Communications, also known as Ofcom — a corporate entity established in 2003 and responsible for administering the Online Safety Act.

“On information and belief, Ofcom’s actions were intended to undermine the First Amendment and American competitiveness, signaling consequences to larger American companies that might otherwise resist the UK’s regulatory overreach, with a collateral benefit that such enforcement actions would suppress dissenting or controversial speech that challenges prevailing political orthodoxy within the United Kingdom — even, or perhaps especially, when that speech originates in the United States,” the companies wrote in the suit.

The United Kingdom Parliament passed the statute in October 2023 as part of an effort to limit children’s exposure to online content deemed illegal or harmful.

On July 25, a set of age verification rules went into effect, which require internet users to confirm they are over 18 by presenting a photo ID, providing banking information, agreeing to facial scanning and other age estimation services via a user’s email, credit card or telephone network, according to the communications office.

“The Online Safety Act grants wide commercial power to a corporation,” 4chan said. “That corporation, Ofcom, now uses those powers to communicate written threats to impose ruinous civil penalties and referrals to law enforcement for criminal penalties, including arrest and imprisonment, to American real and corporate citizens if Ofcom’s orders are not obeyed.”

The plaintiffs maintain that, as American companies, they “do not answer to the UK.” 4chan is based in Delaware, while Kiwi Farms is based in West Virginia.

According to 4chan, the site’s policy of allowing its users to post anonymously brought it into the communications office’s crosshairs, as Section 12(4) of the statute, which requires users to verify their ages, would prevent them from using 4chan anonymously.

Further, Sections 100, 102(8) and 113 empower the communications office to compel a company to provide a “risk assessment,” demand potentially incriminating information, and impose civil fines and criminal punishment — up to two years imprisonment — for failure to comply.

On April 14, the communications office sent 4chan a “legally binding information notice” regarding penalties if it failed to provide a risk assessment, including an £18 million fine and/or a two-year prison term.

Over the next four months, the communications office continued issuing notices, all of which 4chan maintains were not properly served under the U.S.-UK Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, a 1994 treaty meant to govern international legal proceedings.

On Aug. 12, the communications office ruled that 4chan had violated the Online Safety Act by refusing to comply and threatened a £20,000 fine, with daily fines of £100 for up to 60 days.

The communications office engaged in a similar procedure with Kiwi Farms, warning that it would face a £18 million fine for failing to provide a risk assessment.

On March 31, Kiwi Farms’ legal team replied with a confrontational letter, challenging the Online Safety Act’s application to American companies.

“Where Americans are concerned, the Online Safety Act purports to legislate the Constitution out of existence,” the attorneys wrote. “Parliament does not have that authority. That issue was settled, decisively, 243 years ago in a war that the UK’s armies lost and are not in any position to relitigate.”

The UK’s implementation of the age verification rules drew stark criticism over the summer, with human rights and free speech groups slamming the provisions as wrongful censorship in the name of child safety.

While the age verification standards apply to adult sites and mature content online, several online platforms like X, Discord and Spotify began requiring users to show a form of ID. The wide-ranging application of the requirement led UK users to begin using VPNs, or virtual private networks, in order to circumvent the regional restrictions.

Earlier this month, aBritish judge dismissed a Wikipedia lawsuit in which it sought an exemption from the age verification rule over concerns that it would put its many anonymous editors at risk.

Justice Jeremy Johnson of the High Court of Justice in London ruled the communications office correctly applied the law when determining that Wikipedia may need to comply with the user verification rule. However, Johnson added his ruling should not be seen as encouraging regulators to “implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia’s operations.”

“If they were to do so, that would have to be justified as proportionate” and proven not to infringe on contributors’ freedom of expression, Johnson said.

The companies requested a federal judge declare the agency’s previous demands unlawful and unenforceable in the United States and issue an injunction barring additional demands against the companies.

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