United Kingdom

How would politicians get their class A drugs delivered if they banned under-16s from Telegram?

They say that they intentionally aren't targeting messaging services, so Telegram might be exempt.

This would capture user-to-user platforms, whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which allow users to post material, alongside algorithms. The ban will therefore include platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. We do not intend for messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal to be included in the social media ban.

That being said, I'm a little fuzzy on how this is targeting communicating with strangers, since I'd imagine that more people do that via messaging platforms than, say, YouTube:

In a move to protect children online and address the scale of the challenge, the government will also go further than a blanket ban on social media with world-leading blocks on harmful functions such as livestreaming and stranger communication with children for under-16s. These restrictions – which together with the ban go further than any other country – will apply to a wider range of online services, including on gaming sites.

That's a good point on Rumble, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_(company)

Rumble, Inc. is a Canadian-American online video platform, web hosting, and cloud services business[8][9] headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with its U.S. headquarters in Longboat Key, Florida. It was founded in 2013 by Chris Pavlovski, a Canadian technology entrepreneur. Rumble's cloud services business hosts Truth Social, and the video platform is popular among American conservative and far-right users. Rumble has been described as "alt-tech".

Rumble received investment from venture capitalists Peter Thiel, Vivek Ramaswamy and JD Vance in May 2021, with that round of funding valuing Rumble at around $500 million.[21] In October 2021, Rumble acquired Locals.[22] On December 14, 2021, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) announced that it entered a "wide-ranging technology and cloud services agreement" with Rumble in a statement that also stated that Rumble would operate part of Truth Social as well as TMTG.[23]

According to a June 2021 article from Slate, "Pavlovski has recently become more outspoken in accusing Big Tech of censorship and now actively courts prominent conservatives and intellectual dark web figures to join Rumble."[50] It also hosted Truth Social as of June 2022.[62] In August 2021, Rumble reached agreements with former Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard and The Intercept founder Glenn Greenwald to start posting their videos to the site.[63]

As of August 15, 2022, Rumble reported 78 million monthly active users (MAU).[64] That month, after being banned from most other platforms for hate speech and harmful conduct, kickboxer and social media personality Andrew Tate began posting on Rumble. Tate's move coincided with a significant increase in downloads of the Rumble app.[65][66] Other prominent figures to join in 2021 include far-right podcaster Nick Fuentes, who has become one of their biggest streamers.[67]

And in that vein, gab.com:

https://gab.com/

You won't find Gab on the Apple App Store or Google Play. We've been banned since 2017 for refusing to censor speech that Big Tech demanded we remove. But you can still get our app on your phone—and it works just as well as any native app.

Freedom of Speech & Reach

All First Amendment protected speech is welcome. No algorithmic throttling or shadow banning like other platforms.

Battle Tested

A decade of standing strong against censorship. Banned from app stores, banks, and payment processors—and still here.

Being banned from app stores for nearly a decade shows how serious we are about defending free speech. We also reject all foreign censorship demands and data requests for so-called "hate speech" from foreign nations. On Gab your speech stays protected and we have the scars to prove it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gab_(social_network)

Gab is an American alt-tech microblogging and social networking service. Widely described as a haven for far-right and alt-right users, Gab has attracted users and groups who have been banned from other social media platforms and users seeking alternatives to mainstream social media platforms. Founded in 2016 and launched publicly in May 2017, Gab claims to promote free speech, individual liberty, the "free flow of information online", and Christian values. Researchers and journalists have characterized these assertions as an obfuscation of its extremist ecosystem.

And 4chan, while I'm on that:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c624330lg1ko

The UK online safety regulator Ofcom has fined the US messaging platform 4Chan a total of £520,000 for failing to comply with various aspects of the Online Safety Act.

It includes £450,000 for failing to put in age checks to prevent children from seeing pornography on the platform.

However, a lawyer representing the company - which has previously said it won't pay such fines - has responded to the demand with an AI-generated cartoon image of a hamster.

In a follow-up post on X, 4Chan's lawyer Preston Byrne wrote: "In the only country in which 4chan operates, the United States, it is breaking no law and indeed its conduct is expressly protected by the First Amendment."

The latest image is not the first picture of a hamster lawyers for 4chan have sent in reply to Ofcom

Like, if part of the net effect winds up being a transfer of Britain's children and teenagers from websites that care about and follow British regulations to websites

some of which are hard right

that do not care about British regulation, it will be interesting.