Will this be the first site block under the #OnlineSafetyAct?
> Ofcom has today (6 January 2026) informed the provider of [a] suicide forum that, having reviewed the available evidence, we are working towards issuing a provisional notice of contravention (‘Provisional Decision’) in relation to breaches of the Online Safety Act (‘the Act’).
> ...
> As such, we have informed the provider of this forum that we would be prepared to make an application to the court for business disruption measures, where appropriate and proportionate, swiftly after the period for making representations on the Provisional Decision has elapsed, if any non-compliance we may identify in our Provisional Decision continues.
😊)
business disruption measures is a load bearing phrase in that statement.
So blocking payment processing or banking facilities and / or technical access restrictions? 🤨🤷♂️
@simonzerafa And possibly ISP-level blocking.
Which only covers the big 5 UK ISP's, last time I checked? 🤔
It depends what you are looking at.
Site-blocking injunctions has been limited, in terms of the ISPs to which they apply.
Sanctions-related obligations apply to all ISPs, irrespective of size.
@neil @simonzerafa "applies to all ISP" which means what? I'm not obliged to use my ISPs DNS server. Or any "safe site" filtering they might offer.
@falken @neil @simonzerafa If I'm understanding the business disruption measures correctly, your ISP could be ordered to block all traffic to the relevant IP addresses, regardless of whether you use their DNS or filters (effectively it would be a mandatory filter). And if you're using a UK based VPN the same applies.
@pwaring @neil @simonzerafa ... And the site is behind CloudFlare proxy so that doesn't work.
At this stage, we do not know what kind of blocking order Ofcom would seek.
If it is akin to the copyright injunctions, it would be DNS-based.
If it is a static order (i.e. Ofcom needs to go back to court to get a new order if the site's IP address changes), then a site blocked by IP address might simply pop up a reverse proxy on a different IP.
And so on.
