Its already affected lemmy.zip

https://lemmy.zip/post/28187868

Due to some overbearing/draconian laws coming into place in the UK, I need to take steps to protect the site long term. You may have already seen this post in /c/technology which proves that these laws have a real negative effect on small independent websites, especially those hosted/run by people in the UK.

…

In order to make things as simple as possible going forwards, I am therefore proposing:

From the 1st of February 2025, Lemmy.zip will only offer a service to people who are over 18.

Before I go any further with this, I am asking all Lemmy.zip users to share their thoughts on what this change might mean. I know the Fediverse tends to skew older, but I am also aware that this might affect some current users too.

No. They can’t force servers in other countries to comply with their laws.

On top of that, even if UK users are somehow forced to shut down their servers, there’s nothing stopping them from moving to a server elsewhere out of the jurisdiction of that law (good luck preventing that with a geoblock). This is why and how decentralized media can resist authoritarian censorship and why, even with its lesser funding and warts, it will always be the superior choice for anyone trying to resist surveillance states.

Legal and financial support, such as grants or free compliance training, could help admins navigate complex rules, while decentralised moderation and peer-to-peer enforcement would reduce the individual burden.

While I also consider decentralized moderation a big win, I think throwing money at this in form of “grants” will enable grant providers to inject political agenda into the training.