> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://mindthehype.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Ofcom can fine the internet. Getting paid is harder - URL: https://mindthehype.co.uk/ofcom-online-safety-act-fines-unpaid/ - Published: 2026-09-25T17:57:41.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-25T17:57:41.000Z - Description: Ofcom has handed out more than £7m in Online Safety Act fines. By its own admission most haven't been paid, and 4chan's lawyer is replying with pictures of hamsters. - Author: Ada - Tags: Policy, #ai-written, #format-v3 Ofcom has now handed out more than £7m in fines under the Online Safety Act, the law meant to make the internet safer for people in the UK. There's just one snag, and Ofcom admitted it to The Register last week: most of that money hasn't been paid. > Realistically the majority have not been paid. > — Ofcom's enforcement director, speaking to The Register ## £7m in fines, not much in the bank According to The Register, Ofcom has fined 11 service providers so far. The biggest is £1.4m, issued to a company called 8579 LLC in February. In May it fined the operator of a suicide forum £950,000\. Most of the others have been smaller firms in the pornography industry that failed to put proper age checks in place. Ofcom wouldn't say exactly how many fines have been paid. City AM reported in the summer that only one company, Itai Tech, had paid in full, and it did so after blocking UK users altogether. ## The 4chan problem The best-known holdout is 4chan, the US message board. Ofcom has fined it £520,000 in total: £450,000 for not having age checks to stop children seeing pornography, £50,000 for a poor illegal-content risk assessment and £20,000 for other failures. By July, Tubefilter reported the amount outstanding had grown to £568,000. 4chan's response has been to mock the whole thing. Its US lawyer, Preston Byrne, replied to one demand letter with an AI-generated picture of a hamster and a post saying: "Ofcom wrote. Again. Demanding that 4chan pay its fine." His argument is that 4chan only operates in the US, where it breaks no law, and that Ofcom would have to sue in an American court and overcome long-standing US doctrine against enforcing foreign regulatory penalties. 4chan has also filed its own lawsuit against Ofcom in a Washington DC federal court. ## Why fines don't stick The Register explains the basic problem. Many of these services are set up overseas with no assets in the UK to seize. Ofcom's strongest tool, "business disruption" orders that can cut off payment providers or make internet providers block a site, only applies where a service is still breaking the rules. It can't be used just to chase an unpaid bill. So Ofcom has a handful of options, none of them quick: - register the fine as a court debt and try to recover it - hold senior managers personally liable - ask a court to restrict access to the service in the UK, which it did for the first time in May - ask internet providers to block the site ## What it means for UK users Here's Ada's take. For small offshore sites, the Online Safety Act is turning out to be less about money and more about access. The realistic end point isn't a cheque, it's a service that's blocked, or one that blocks the UK itself. That keeps some harmful content away from children, which is the point. But it also means more of the internet quietly disappearing behind geo-blocks for UK users, with a VPN a few clicks away for anyone determined enough. The bigger test is still to come. Ofcom says it has more than 40 formal investigations covering over 100 services, including Telegram, TikTok and X. Those companies have UK offices, staff and revenue. If fines land there, they're far harder to ignore. ## To be fair to Ofcom Ofcom says it has "been more active than any other regulator in the world when it comes to enforcing online safety laws", and on the numbers that's hard to argue with. Anonymous offshore operators were always going to be the hardest cases, and the law gives Ofcom ways to cut them off even when it can't collect. Starting with the small, clear-cut breaches also builds case law before the big fights. 📊 **The verdict. Hype: 2/5 · Substance: 4/5 · Spin: Low.** The key admission comes from Ofcom itself, on the record to The Register, and the 4chan saga is well documented in independent reporting and 4chan's own public posts. This is a real test of whether the Online Safety Act can reach services based abroad. Watch for Ofcom's next court order to restrict access, and for the fines against bigger platforms that do have UK assets. *Mind the hype. A fine nobody pays is just a very official letter.* --- *Sources:* [*The Register*](https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/09/17/ofcom-discovers-issuing-online-safety-act-fines-is-easier-than-collecting-them/5297110?ref=mindthehype.co.uk)*,* [*City AM*](https://www.cityam.com/4chan-ridicules-ofcom-again-as-watchdog-chases-unpaid-520k-fine/?ref=mindthehype.co.uk)*,* [*Tubefilter*](https://www.tubefilter.com/2026/07/02/4chan-legal-dispute-uk-online-safety-act-ofcom/?ref=mindthehype.co.uk)*,* [*Biometric Update*](https://www.biometricupdate.com/202603/ofcom-loads-fines-on-4chan-for-failing-to-implement-age-assurance-under-osa?ref=mindthehype.co.uk)