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It is four concentric green hearts, similar to a four-leaf clover. Getty Images The UK online safety regulator Ofcom has fined the US messaging platform 4Chan a total of PS520,000 for failing to comply with various aspects of the Online Safety Act. It includes PS450,000 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 fines also include PS50,000 for failing to assess the risk of illegal material being published and a further PS20,000 for failing to set out how it protects users from criminal content. 4Chan has refused to pay all previous fines from Ofcom. Ofcom responded to the BBC's request for a reply to Byrne's posts with a statement from Suzanne Cater, its director of enforcement. "Companies - wherever they're based - are not allowed to sell unsafe toys to children in the UK. And society has long protected youngsters from things like alcohol, smoking and gambling. The digital world should be no different," she said. "The UK is setting new standards for online safety. Age checks and risk assessments are cornerstones of our laws, and we'll take robust enforcement action against firms that fall short." She did not comment on the image 4Chan had published in response to the fine. [grey-place]Preston & Byrne An AI-generated picture of a giant cartoon hamster in a green mock-Godzilla costume, holding a peanut. Clear blue sky can be seen beyond it.Preston & Byrne The latest image is not the first picture of a hamster lawyers for 4chan have sent in reply to Ofcom In February 2025 Vice President JD Vance told an audience of world leaders at the AI Summit in Paris that the administration was "growing tired" of foreign countries attempting to regulate its tech businesses. 4chan is known to be an anarchic messaging space, and has often been at the heart of online controversies since it launched 22 years ago. Ofcom has issued nearly PS3m in fines to tech companies around the world for breaches of the UK's online safety laws. However most of this money has not yet been received. Ofcom says one company called Itai Tech, which runs a nudification site, paid its fines of PS50,000 and PS5,000, and blocked UK users from its service, while two other firms added age verification. It added that other fines were still within their timeframe to be paid, and it was "considering next steps" for those who had missed payment deadlines. In December the regulator told the BBC it had never heard from a company running 18 porn sites, which it had fined PS1m, although the company did later add age verification to its platforms. Last month Pornhub restricted access to its website in the UK, blaming the introduction of stricter age checks, and said its traffic had fallen by 77%. 4chan launches legal action against Ofcom in US How can you keep your child safe online? Porn site fined PS800,000 for not rolling out age checks [grey-place]A green promotional banner with black squares and rectangles forming pixels, moving in from the right. The text says: "Tech Decoded: The world's biggest tech news in your inbox every Monday." Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here. Online Safety Bill Ofcom --------------------------------------------------------------------- Related My identity was stolen and someone is using it to catfish men - it's terrifying Social media firms asked to toughen up age checks for under-13s Reddit fined PS14m for 'concerning' child age check failings --------------------------------------------------------------------- More from the BBC 27 Feb 2026 [grey-place]Two teenagers stand in front of a large logo of Instagram. Both are on their phones. Instagram investigating AI profiles 'fetishising' disabled people Accounts pretending to have conditions like Down's Syndrome have amassed thousands of followers 27 Feb 2026 23 Feb 2026 [grey-place]Close up on a pair of hands holding a white phone, the person is wearing a brown shirt. Porn company fined PS1.35m by Ofcom over age check failings Ofcom's PS1.35m fine on 8579 LLC is the largest it has levied under the Online Safety Act so far. 23 Feb 2026 18 Feb 2026 [grey-place]A child's finger is typing on a laptop that is shaded blue from lighting. Child abuse increasing and more complex to police, crime agency says Police cannot tackle the issue alone, the NCA says, and technology companies must do more. 18 Feb 2026 12 Feb 2026 [grey-place]An unidentifiable young man, wearing a chequered shirt over a yellow t-shirt, types on a smartphone held in front of him. Porn site fined PS800,000 for not rolling out age checks Separately, message board 4chan says it will refuse to pay an expected PS520,000 fine from the media regulator. 12 Feb 2026 9 Feb 2026 [grey-place]STV staff wearing winter clothing holding placards on a picket line in Glasgow. The signs read "Stop The Cuts" and "No Job Cuts". Consultation ends over STV news programme cuts Regulator Ofcom now has to decide whether to accept the broadcaster's plan for its northern news service. 9 Feb 2026 --------------------------------------------------------------------- * Home * News * Sport * Business * Technology * Health * Culture * Arts * Travel * Earth * Audio * Video * Live * Documentaries * Weather * BBC Shop * BritBox BBC in other languages The BBC is in multiple languages Read the BBC In your own language Oduu Afaan Oromootiin Amharic zeenaa ba'amaarenyaa Arabic `rby Azeri AZ@RBAYCAN Bangla baaNlaa Burmese m[?]n[?]maa Chinese Zhong Wen Wang Dari dry French AFRIQUE Hausa HAUSA Hindi hindii Gaelic NAIDHEACHDAN Gujarati gujraatiimaaN smaacaar Igbo AKUKO N'IGBO Indonesian INDONESIA Japanese Ri Ben Yu Kinyarwanda GAHUZA Kirundi KIRUNDI Korean hangugeo Kyrgyz Kyrgyz Marathi mraatthii Nepali nepaalii Noticias para hispanoparlantes Pashto pStw Persian frsy Pidgin Polish PO POLSKU Portuguese BRASIL Punjabi pNjaabii khhbraaN Russian NA RUSSKOM Serbian NA SRPSKOM Sinhala siNhl Somali SOMALI Swahili HABARI KWA KISWAHILI Tamil tmilllil ceytikll Telugu telugu vaartlu Thai khaawphaasaaaithy Tigrinya zeenaa betegerenyaa Turkish TURKCE Ukrainian UKRAYiNS'KA Urdu rdw Uzbek O'ZBEK Vietnamese TIENG VIET Welsh NEWYDDION Yoruba IROYIN NI YORUBA Follow BBC on: * Terms of Use * Subscription Terms * About the BBC * Privacy Policy * Cookies * Accessibility Help * Contact the BBC * Advertise with us * Do not share or sell my info * BBC.com Help & FAQs * Content Index * Set Preferred Source Copyright 2026 BBC. 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