> Not even China and North Korea whine about or send fake “fines” to offshore entities. They just block their sites and move on with life.

On the contrary, both of those are very active in going after people who operate websites they don't like from overseas, and/or their family members (who are often easier to get at). They just don't publish legal notices around it.

[sigh] and this is the first (mandated) step in that process. The UK don’t expect 4chan to pay the fine, which means, once the period to pay has expired, they’ll just be blocked instead.

They could skip that step entirely if the relevant legislation was people with even a general grasp of geography and how the Internet works.

Yes but this is British legislation so that Venn diagram is two non-overlapping circles.