MelonFarmers.co.uk is an anti-censorship campaigning website.
It is not a traditional campaign or political organisation. There are no members, no subscriptions and no constitutions. Just a bunch of good people who
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There's still plenty of porn sites without ID verification. And nearly all of them are available without ID/age verification when using a VPN.
The censorship
of internet porn is now in force via the Online Safety Act.
Ofcom has scored a few points for persuading the most well known porn sites to inflict ID verification for porn users. Very few news outlets seem to be reporting that there are still hundreds
of sites that are still open and available to UK users without ID verification. List of ID verification requirements (if any) for popular tube sites
The Online Safety Act is proving a
disaster for free speech in that a significant number of news topics are now off limits or hidden behind ID verification. This was inevitable due to the way the legislation was framed. ie massive penalties for transgressions and hardly a pat on the back
for trying to maintain freedom of speech.
In the ideal world inhabited by politicians and campaigners, it would be the case that every individual post should be considered on its own merits. In the real world, where internet companies are driven by
the reality of technical capability and the need to make money, then it easier and cheaper to be very broad brush about censorship. It is more cost effective to ban all posts with the word 'Palestine' in the text rather than trying to check each one for
the support of terrorism. So over blocking will always be an inherent characteristic of responses to this law. Non porn websites that have self blocked to UK users
