You know I've been thinking lately. What if *every* UK website operator, or operator of internet-based services within the UK, blocked access to British visitors? Only let foreigners in.

This would be an act of civil disobedience against the Online Safety Act, though it would not take the operator themself outside the scope of the Act, since they'd still be in the UK.

I could feasibly do this for all my websites. Including for my company website; most of my customers are foreigners.

Thoughts?

@libreleah Since not every UK website operator is going to do this, it's not going to be effective at getting the OSA repealed, it's just going to be annoying for people in the UK. Please do not do this.

@libreleah a superior solution would be a redirect to a list of VPN services.

there is another alternative: disable CSS for UK visitors, except on a big banner that appears, warning them about the dangers of the Online Safety Act, as it pertains to orwellian censorship of tthe internet.

this would make one's website hard to read for most people, but not inaccessible, but still accomplish a similar result.

let the british visitors access your website like it's 1995.

just make your website as unpleasant to use as possible. make clear that this is only for british users.

don't show images inline either, for british users. make them have to click a link, to see an image - and make it so that the click action is delayed via javascript.

it's just accessible enough, but really unpleasant to use.

also, and the banner would make this obvious: make the entire page/site disappear after 5 minutes, then make it disappear for 10 minutes at a time. do this based on the visitor's IP address and cookie/session data. have a countdown timer displayed on the page, each time.

to comply with EU regulations, that also means a cookie banner has to be displayed, to accept/deny.

no javascript or cookies on libreboot.org for non-british users. they get the real, fully functional libreboot.org

yes. i will think more about this, and the wider campaign i wish to start, but it shall be done.

it will be a campaign to break the internet for british users, until OSA is repealed. they're breaking the internet anyway. we'll just break it faster, steal the OSA's thunder entirely.

@libreleah This is an amazing idea! I say go for it. I look forward to having loads of difficulty using your site, 😅. As a British user (who uses VPN so...), I would rather have a giggle trying to navigate civil disobedience than voluntarily give up my personal details. Mind you, if I get flagged to provide anything, I leave the website and tell the owner they lost another customer because I won't give the fash anything they can use against me later. More than half the bloody country has petitioned this, yet here we are, 🤦‍♀️.
#OnlineSafetyAct #stopfascism #orwell2025 #bigbrother

@libreleah I don't think this is going to have much effect, even if you get other websites to do this. Many commercial websites are already like this (JavaScript required for images, cookie consent banners, ...) and most people are apparently fine with it. Libreboot users in particular are likely to already be aware of the OSA and why it is bad.