Engelbaum

Hiii everyone. It seems like every other day something else destructive is happening online to make things more difficult for everyone but the largest companies.

Basically a new law has been implemented here in the UK (that also effects non UK websites) called the Online Safety Act which requires ALL User to User websites and apps regardless of size/income/ownership to spend thousands of £££ implementing content filters. I am obviously ALL for protecting children online and not stumbling across harmful images, creepy weirdos, misinformation and other nasty shit that should never be out there. But this law is too broad, terribly written and does not care for small blogs, forums, niche fandom forums and hobby communities that exist for non profit reasons. Static websites seem to be ok(?) but anything involving hosting a place where people can comment or talk to eachother is what’s on the chopping block. I personally moderate all the comments that are posted here before they go live but apparently that’s not good enough. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this law is going to destroy so many online communities that aren’t social media platforms. The fines for non compliance are huge too. Millions of pounds huge.
It’s a lot to get my head around, so for now I’m closing all comments and forums on my websites until the general public catch up with this and something constructive is done about it. The comic will still update here but the comments will be off.
In the meantime I’ll have a big think and see if we can get some kind of focused community going somewhere external (large) that CAN pay the stupid prices and time required just to exist on the internet like normal person.

Capitalism yay. This law has just nuked the ability for any small entity or company to grow a community on their own terms independently. It’s also forcing people to have to go to large platforms that abuse user data/content with AI training *cough* outright theft.

I’m so exhausted. I just wanna make cool comics for you all. I miss the internet in the 90’s so bad.

So yeah. Just sit tight and hopefully something will be done about it when enough people get clued in.

If you have any nice comments or thoughts about Engelbaum specifically in the meantime please feel free to email me at imagnib0x@gmail.com