Ofcom boss Dame Melanie Dawes has admitted today that tech firms have paid just two of the eleven fines handed out under the Online Safety Act since March last year. Giving evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, she conceded nine remain unpaid, four of the offending sites have simply geo-blocked the UK, and three are still up and running with nothing changed. Why bother in the first place, then…
She told the committee:
“We won’t be able to recover every single fine on online safety. If foreign courts decide to… try and get in our way, there will be a point at which we have to accept that we won’t be able to recover that money.”
Preston Byrne, the American lawyer who saw off Ofcom’s attempt to fine 4chan (and emailed them a picture of a giant hamster), tells Guido the quango has only itself to blame:
“The 4chan ruling also made it clear that they’re not going to be able to collect if they get here… Come to an American court and get some. If you dare.”
A paper tiger…
Robert Jenrick on the Today programme:
“Can you now give a guarantee to your listeners this morning that no BBC presenter in the future will be exposed as a paedophile, as a number have been in the recent past? No, of course you can’t…”