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Comment by smarx007 | Hacker News Reader

Could someone please shed any light on why simply geoblocking the UK in its entirety would not be sufficient for an average forum to avoid having to deal with the Act?

A lot of US websites initially geoblocked EU to avoid dealing with GDPR, for example.

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In this particular case, the forum is UK-based ("HEXUS is a UK-based technology reporting and reviews website founded by David Ross in 2000")

In other non-UK-based cases, geo-blocking is the answer being used by some people.

Per https://geoblockthe.uk/, they state:

"Luckily OFCOM (the UK Government department responsible for 'enforcement' of these new rules) have confirmed that blocking people in the UK from accessing your website is a perfectly legal and acceptable way to comply with the law.".

Would be great if services like e.g. Wikipedia would do exactly that.

"This website is not available in the UK. Ask your representative about the UK Online Safety Act for more information".

Wikipedia tries to act as a source for information all around the globe, they never block, they only get blocked, blocking the UK would go against their goals

Other comments here have suspected its audience might be primarily UK-based, so geoblocking might not be the best option.

I'm also not familiar with UK law, which may or may not deem that be a sufficient counter-measure against VPNs. Also, if the forum's operator is based in the UK this also might not be an option.

That doesn’t help a UK-based forum. But otherwise, the law doesn’t limit itself to the UK, so there is concern about what happens if you don’t comply with it and ever intend to visit the UK.

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