I don't understand why that would be the case. GDPR is mostly about personal data (that you don't really need for a forum). The online safety bill would at worst get your forum get blocked in the UK, but I haven't been able to find clear expectations for a forum outside of what I would call "regular moderation". I also didn't find much about the EU's digital economy regulations. Would you mind expanding on why it's nearly impossible for almost anyone to run a forum now?
People can post a lot of personal information to an internet forum without asking the owner and even email addresses count as personal information.
Labour and the Tories are trying to extend The online safety bill to put forum owner in prison if found to be causing harm (whatever that means) and you would have to pay for staff to monitor the forums 24/7 (no one is going to help out if they risk going to prison). All with a fuck ton of vagueness that can millions of pounds of fines.
That will make it impossible for anyone but big tech to run online forums.
Even if that UK bill passes, why can’t Americans and third world residents simply ignore it? If the UK requires ISPs to block the domain, that’s one thing, but how can they realistically enforce prison time on a foreign forum owner? A country that honors such an extradition request is one that is in need to violent replacement with a legitimate government.
Thank you for the explanation. From what you said, blocking the UK looks like the most sane thing to do if you run a forum, though I'm not even sure if that would be enough for them.
People posting their PI on their own in public is however not something the GDPR really covers and so would not affect a forum operator. Leaking users email addresses is another thing of course, but was undesirable before there was GDPR. (Though it might be totally possible to run a forum without requiring email if one is really worried)
You are not wrong though that running forums or any website with user generated content is becoming increasingly difficult for individuals, though the real culprits here on EU level are the recent copyright reform which requires you to remove infringing content quickly and the upcoming Anti-Terror regulation which requires removing content in one hour. Though it might be true, that many of these laws might be toothless against individuals or non-profits, even though they do not specially exclude them. But it really seems lawmakers don't think much of the internet beyond facebook, twitter and google.
