7 ms·

"Unavailable Due to the UK Online Safety Act" - without my VPN... do you know why?

by dsmurrell 5mo ago

lbotos 5mo ago
aphyr may have some NSFW photos on the site IIRC which may have got the domain swept up with the new UK laws.
- jasonmp85 5mo ago
  [dead]
- tom_ 5mo ago
  It's self-imposed, I think? curl connects to the same aphyr.com in both cases, but when connecting from the UK it receives a different response body. Probably sensible I expect, if you just want things to work, legally speaking.
nemomarx 5mo ago
Geo blocking the UK satisfies any age verification, otherwise the site owner would have to check if their content is considered adult in the UK and implement something.
- nmeofthestate 5mo ago
  "otherwise the site owner would have to check if their content is considered adult in the UK and implement something" IMO a small blog website is not going to get pulled-up for this - it's about the author making a point. They're entitled to do so of course.
  - Forgeties79 5mo ago
    Never know when one of your posts might gain serious traction. Not worth the risk. Very easy to find many examples of people making decisions thinking “I/we will never be big enough for that to be relevant” only to be haunted by that decision later. Classic example: partnership agreements/contracts between friends and family on small endeavors.
  - embedding-shape 5mo ago
    > IMO a small blog website is not going to get pulled-up for this Well, maybe not the typical engineering blog but I think if you're a puritan some posts/texts from Aphyr probably reaches borderline "adult content", so I'm not that surprised Aphyr rather play it safe and also make a point at the same time.
    - Jtarii 5mo ago
      It's "playing it safe" in the same way that wearing full hockey gear to go to the store is "playing it safe". He is either making a political point or excessively paranoid.
      - nemomarx 5mo ago
        It's probably a political point, but I think your comparison over sells how inconvenient it is for someone to geoblock one small country and the headache if anything did happen. It's not much more effort than doing nothing really? And clearly users in the UK can find their own way to read it if they like, so the cost is also small there.
        Jtarii 5mo ago
        >geoblock one small country Considering that there is multiple "why is this blocked in the uk" comments on every single one of these posts maybe the UK isn't such a small country. Geoblocking a decent chunk of your readership would be a pretty big inconvenience for a writer I would imagine.
      - pixl97 5mo ago
        >or excessively paranoid. Have you even read the shit politicians are either pulling or trying to these days? There is no amount of paranoia that is too little when talking about things like cross national prosecution, laws regarding users not considered adults, and age verification.
      - arbitrary_name 5mo ago
        the culture section of this writeup links to explicitly adult/erotic content in the footnotes and discusses 'adult themes' directly. his caution seems reasonable.
draw_down 5mo ago
[dead]
tim333 5mo ago
The act: >... mandates removing illegal content, restricting access to harmful material, and implementing age verification, with Ofcom enforcing compliance. Violations can result in massive fines of up to 10% of global turnover or £18 million. I guess some people either figure it's easier to block the UK or do so on principle as a protest against the thing.

"Unavailable Due to the UK Online Safety Act" - without my VPN... do you know why?

lbotos 5mo ago

aphyr may have some NSFW photos on the site IIRC which may have got the domain swept up with the new UK laws.

jasonmp85 5mo ago
[dead]
tom_ 5mo ago
It's self-imposed, I think? curl connects to the same aphyr.com in both cases, but when connecting from the UK it receives a different response body. Probably sensible I expect, if you just want things to work, legally speaking.

nemomarx 5mo ago

Geo blocking the UK satisfies any age verification, otherwise the site owner would have to check if their content is considered adult in the UK and implement something.

nmeofthestate 5mo ago
"otherwise the site owner would have to check if their content is considered adult in the UK and implement something" IMO a small blog website is not going to get pulled-up for this - it's about the author making a point. They're entitled to do so of course.
- Forgeties79 5mo ago
  Never know when one of your posts might gain serious traction. Not worth the risk. Very easy to find many examples of people making decisions thinking “I/we will never be big enough for that to be relevant” only to be haunted by that decision later. Classic example: partnership agreements/contracts between friends and family on small endeavors.
- embedding-shape 5mo ago
  > IMO a small blog website is not going to get pulled-up for this Well, maybe not the typical engineering blog but I think if you're a puritan some posts/texts from Aphyr probably reaches borderline "adult content", so I'm not that surprised Aphyr rather play it safe and also make a point at the same time.
  - Jtarii 5mo ago
    It's "playing it safe" in the same way that wearing full hockey gear to go to the store is "playing it safe". He is either making a political point or excessively paranoid.
    - nemomarx 5mo ago
      It's probably a political point, but I think your comparison over sells how inconvenient it is for someone to geoblock one small country and the headache if anything did happen. It's not much more effort than doing nothing really? And clearly users in the UK can find their own way to read it if they like, so the cost is also small there.
      - Jtarii 5mo ago
        >geoblock one small country Considering that there is multiple "why is this blocked in the uk" comments on every single one of these posts maybe the UK isn't such a small country. Geoblocking a decent chunk of your readership would be a pretty big inconvenience for a writer I would imagine.
    - pixl97 5mo ago
      >or excessively paranoid. Have you even read the shit politicians are either pulling or trying to these days? There is no amount of paranoia that is too little when talking about things like cross national prosecution, laws regarding users not considered adults, and age verification.
    - arbitrary_name 5mo ago
      the culture section of this writeup links to explicitly adult/erotic content in the footnotes and discusses 'adult themes' directly. his caution seems reasonable.

draw_down 5mo ago

[dead]

tim333 5mo ago

The act: >... mandates removing illegal content, restricting access to harmful material, and implementing age verification, with Ofcom enforcing compliance. Violations can result in massive fines of up to 10% of global turnover or £18 million. I guess some people either figure it's easier to block the UK or do so on principle as a protest against the thing.