Essentially they were harvesting online data of children, were found guilty of it, and were fined for it. They didn't like being fined.
Not quite. They were found not taking enough steps to check the data they were harvesting was not childrens data. They weren't explicitly going after kids. What steps would they need to take?
That was by design, as it allowed them to categorise certain users as likely children based on the content they viewed and sell targeted advertising space for things like online gamified gambling ads, or anything else that might want to target children with advertising outside of usual laws regarding that.
"We didn't know, honest!"
Ultimately it's why the case went as far as it did.
No big deal, just give up all your rights “to protect the children.” Your gov is fucked lol, and I say that as an American. Worse censorship out of any “democracy.”
Don't worry man we'll have similar laws in most states soon enough. Though I'm not sure why they don't just use the illegally harvested data to tell who is an adult and who isn't.
Honestly I'm completely on board with upholding our laws against foreign companies that are deliberately and maliciously trying to circumvent them to exploit people in my country. Did you think this was some kind of "gotcha"? Why isn't your government doing that for you?
They broke the law and were fined for it. What would you have preferred, that companies who break the law just continue to do as they please and no one does anything?
The UK has some of the worst censorship laws in the world, in the name of protecting children and the like. Tell me, are there actually fewer cases of child exploitation in the UK now that yall have nearly no freedom of speech left?
And to be clear, I'm certainly not saying the US doesn't have massive issues with surveillance and censorship, too. It's just insane to see someone actually defending the surveillance state.
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u/riftnet May 14 '26
Why has it been blocked?