What are other nostr app developers and relay operators doing with regard to the UK Online Services Act? Apparently there is no legal exception for open source or apps that are not connecting to servers you control or apps that are entirely encrypted and peer to peer. Basically they want us to KYC anyone they think might be based in the UK, and implement content filters. There seems to be no way to be in compliance in Nostr without limiting all connections to a single gateway relay the way Primal does, and with geo location, including blocking tor and vpn connections, and content analysis of all text and media. Basically insanity which is completely counter to the entire Nostr project. I knew there was some of OSA coming but I hadn’t paid attention to it. None of us want to KYC our users or build a content filtering system. I mean how do we know if a post is about a knife? Yes we can’t have content about knives! Or how do we determine who considers content hateful? https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/online-safety/information-for-industry/illegal-harms/illegal-content-codes-of-practice-for-user-to-user-services.pdf?v=391681 What are Nostr devs based in the UK doing? Users? Relay operators?

Replies (49)

I think they are laying low… not sure what more I am not tech savvy
Certainly not going to geo-block or filter out knife content. Here's a picture of part of my current shopping cart. image If our friends on the island go to jail for reading this post, I'm sorry but why should we hold back in other jurisdictions? Let them block my relay. I won't block them.
I sincerely hope there is a way around this. I have faith in the genius and ingenuity of this community, but not necessarily in the popular adoption of people actually giving a fuck about their sovereign rights. View quoted note →
I don't really know the answer, but I like how Bisq are doing their dev work - explicitly advising everybody who wants to contribute to be as anonymous as they possibly can. I know it would add a lot of extra effort, but if you're building apps which are likely to be seen as disruptive, then it probably makes sense. It is what Satoshi did.
Hopefully they are thinking ahead and making sure they are not exposed in any way to the insanity of the Globalist agenda (This isn't just happening in Britain or Australia - every western country has some form of it going on!) Be like Satoshi and stay hidden even as you contribute.
Why would you comply with some British people asking you not to develop software you and your loved ones seem to have survival uses for? Do these people have some good argument for why you should comply?
Kat Abughezelah doesn't seem retarded or a pedophile so can you also recognize "or young" in your list of possible groups that want to be politicians? I don't even hate pedophiles, I just don't think she fits your box
other conversation
The Fishcake (nostr.build)'s avatar The Fishcake (nostr.build)
So, due to the recent enactment of the UK’s Online Safety act, we maybe forced to not serve any content to the citizens of UK (accessing from UK) if our AI determines that the content is unsafe or unscannable. It may also impact AU in the near future if people of AU will allow their government to continue on the current course. Don’t blame the messenger, the fines are ridiculous and impossible to fight. Alternative is similarly ridiculous, scanning your face by some third party to verify your age.
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The UK law makes no distinction between individuals or companies. It doesn’t care if you’re google or an anonymous peer to peer open source project. There are basically no exceptions or understanding of how tech actually works.
The UK government says they’re going to ban entry to the country anyone who violates the law and in some cases try and extradite to face criminal charges people who provide services to users in the UK without KYC age verification. It’s bonkers.
So get extradited. That's how life works, if people who want to lock you up and/or kill you have enough guns to pick random victims and you get picked, you're fucked. The goal is to have someone end up surviving, not to pretend you can magically guarantee it's yourself
Kimico's avatar
Kimico 5 months ago
sick...
Kimico's avatar Kimico
One by one the police took them away. Some were carried, some walked. In every case, officers read them their rights, saying the words: “I am arresting you under the Terrorism Act.” Many among the silent protesters in Parliament Square yesterday had to be asked if they were mobile enough to make the short walk to the police van. View quoted note →
View quoted note →
The question isn't "will I be in the percentage of people who don't make it?" The question is "how do we ensure that percentage isn't 100?"
I’ve already told Rabble my age (97) so I can look at the picture legally.
My understanding is that the UK Online Safety Act imposes KYC requirements only on large social media services, defined as Category 1, who have at least 7 million active users in the UK. There are some obligations for smaller providers, like having mitigation practices for things like CSAM; stuff that I think most Nostr services already have in place.
Are you implying it doesn't matter because you don't see any chance of failing to prevent nostr's growth with your "embrace extend extinguish" strategy?
My strategy is: 1. Collect no personal information 2. Encrypt everything 3. Store data on relays separate from the app 4. Make sure that only the user has the private key. 5. Any agent-type interfaces use a NWC-type interface via relays so that it is impossible to know where the listening agent resides.
Staying anonymous and not complying with any regulation. I don't see a way to fix the current system. The only way out is building a parallel one without bureaucrats.
I want to protect my users so I will do my best to achieve this goal
My prediction is that primal will be the only client in the app/play store soon. They'll ban all the other clients.
I think that it's far more grim to comply and just let the Zionists win. Their stated goal is to destroy humanity, to exterminate 95% of the world's population and enslave the survivors. I'd rather die on my feet to be honest
Uk USA Canada Australia Germany and France all have the same laws getting pushed through. USA and Australia already passed these laws, Texas state internet censorship is actually the worst so far.
This is exactly why decentralization matters — laws like OSA assume control and central authority. If compliance requires breaking Nostr’s principles, maybe the right move is to build more tools that make enforcement technically impossible.
Nostr clients are equivalent to web browsers IMHO. Until Chrome/Firefox/Brave are forced to verify age, I wouldn't bother complying.
you first, what is nos.social doing? you could de-list in the UK to show that you don't have any interest in supporting this. perhaps go one further and replace the app with one that just talks about why these regulations are bad.
i don't think anyone should give them any air time when in london you can have your mobile swiped right out of your hand by dudes in black riding motorcycles. where rape gets off with a tap on the wrist while they are putting people in jail for mean tweets, and daring to publish video of actual violence at protests and criminal activity. anyone who is still there should do everything they can to get to USA or europe or anywhere else. shit is gonna get even worse yet.
We’re going to block our web and relay services to UK ip addresses I think. But maybe also make a system where when a client can’t get to a relay or media server it tries to see if it can get the content over Tor just to handle if there is some network connectivity issues with a direct connection.
I think basically have a trust and reputation system where users see content that is trusted. Or exit the UK market. Or use the primal model. Maybe standardize the primal model so others can use it.