Overview

• Reddit, X, Bluesky and Discord rolled out biometric or ID-based age checks for UK traffic to comply with the Online Safety Act or face fines up to 10 percent of global revenue or court-ordered blocking.
• UK app stores saw VPN downloads jump more than 1,000 percent in days after the Act’s July 25 enforcement deadline as users seek to evade verification requirements.
• Privacy experts warn that mandatory collection of passports, driver’s licences or face scans exposes users to data breaches, sophisticated phishing scams and intrusive profiling.
• The Wikimedia Foundation and other operators have suspended service to UK users and Wikimedia has launched a legal challenge arguing the law undermines global access to free knowledge.
• Digital rights groups report that nonadult content on topics from protest footage to health and LGBTQ+ forums is being over-censored under broad interpretations of harmful content rules.