Repo.or.cz Blocks the UK

repo.or.cz / site guide / UK geoblocking The repo.or.cz site is no longer available in the UK. We hate it as much as you do, but starting 25 July 2025, UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 would require us to do a prohibitively complicated risk assessment for our service. We're talking reading through thousands of pages of legal guidelines. We're a volunteer operation and would likely be held responsible as individuals. There is talk of fines up to 18 million GBP which would ruin any single one of us, should they get creative about how to actually enforce this. Our impression is that this law is deliberately vague, deliberately drastic in its enforcement provisions, and specifically aimed against websites of all sizes, including hobby projects. In other words, this seems to us to be largely indistinguishable from an attempt to basically break the internet for all UK citizens. If we could afford to just hope for the best, we'd love to. After this, I know I will think twice about visiting the UK, but it's not like I can be completely certain that I will never have to... Our most sincere apologies to our UK-based users. For more details, see: https://howto.geoblockthe.uk/ OnlineSafetyAct.co.uk (unofficial page) (view source)

A screenshot of the repo.or.cz website announcing that it is no longer available in the UK. The site explains that the UK Online Safety Act would impose an overly complicated risk assessment and potentially ruinous fines on the volunteer-run service, joking that the law amounts to breaking the internet for UK citizens. It is shared as a satirical reaction to restrictive internet regulation and geoblocking. EN: A screenshot of the repo.or.cz website announcing that it is no longer available in the UK. The site explains that the UK Online Safety Act would impose an overly complicated risk assessment and potentially ruinous fines on the volunteer-run service, joking that the law amounts to breaking the internet for UK citizens. It is shared as a satirical reaction to restrictive internet regulation and geoblocking.

• @gentoomemes / 18881 2025-10-10