I didn't newly start this in 2026; I just haven't stopped the existing system :). Fifteen years ago there weren't all these issues though. Attempts at taking it down whenever anything bad was spotted started probably somewhere around 2019-2020, and user reports are picking up as well since about a year. People suddenly care a lot more that when they guessed a url and found malware (something no legitimate user would stumble upon), it gets removed promptly. So far the number of reports is very very manageable, but it's interesting to observe the collective consciousness change over time from "don't run executables that you don't know are safe" to "untrustworthy files shouldn't exist online in the first place"

The risk of pedophile images is way to high to let anyone upload files to your website. It's one thing probably even the evilest country would agree to jail you for, without investigation.

Sorry mate, the era of forums is over.

Maybe, let's see. So far I haven't gotten CSAM reports yet. Very little porn in general, maybe one video per year or so? In my particular case it's also not very useful because the uploads are all self-destructing. After a few hours you'd have to upload it again, but from a new IP address because I'd block any (C)SAM uploaders and report all evidence I have to police in the appropriate country. Seems like a silly way to burn through a set of working proxies if someone wanted to try to keep abuse material available on that site

Theres no way you can say having an internet presence is over for the little guy and yet at the same time imply its ok if you have enough money/power. I think at that stage it ceases to be useful and we need an internet 2.0. maybe something hobbyists can run over radio or something.

It exists, but very limited, lookup MeshCore and Meshtastic

This is why developing darknet and obfuscating P2P network tech that make it impossible to properly assign legal liability to a node is so important. States are by far the worst monsters humans have invented and they do the stupidest things imagineable.

A State might be composed of humans but it is a machine, a generally unthinking machine, which projects force on and breaks individuals.

[delayed]

You can easily swap government for big corporation in your sentence. So maybe the issue is something else?

[delayed]

/shrug - I have an end-to-end encrypted file delivery service. It's a dumb service. If the box go compromised, it doesn't even matter. The files can't be read or stolen because they would have to actually crack the algorithm... which if they did then it's just over, the internet is plaintext again if people are able to defeat what's been recommended as best practices for SSL/TLS these days.

That’s not the risk, the risk is you’re helping spread horrific things.

Just because a system is end-to-end encrypted doesn't mean the users are anonymous. If someone reported to me a download link with decryption key for my file service, I can probably find the IP address of the person that uploaded it. Then pass it off to whatever govt entity that deals with that.

I’m about to work on doing this. Quick-sharing media files for personal use between devices, friends, LLMs (like a shelf rather than a Dropbox), So an intermediate upload host is needed.

My biggest worry was preventing CPAM, and the possibly huge cost and emotional scarring thereof. What surface(s) are your primary concern? I don’t know what I don’t know. Thanks!