The government of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been directly named in a new United States congressional report that condemns Britain for adopting what it calls “copycat censorship laws,” warning that the country’s digital regulations now pose “a direct threat” to free speech.
The document, published by the United States House Committee on the Judiciary, describes an expanding campaign led by the European Commission to impose “strict digital censorship laws” on global technology platforms.
Lawmakers in Washington identified the Online Safety Act as the clearest example of this approach spreading beyond the European Union.
The Act was introduced with the stated goal of improving online safety, but it requires platforms such as X, Reddit, and TikTok to install age verification systems and remove material deemed harmful by regulators.
US lawmakers say these provisions give the British government broad authority to dictate what can and cannot be said online.
Their report states:
“In many ways, the [European] Commission is leading a global effort for strict digital censorship laws. Copycat bills have emerged in Australia, South Korea, and elsewhere around the world as censorious foreign officials have taken to US universities to plan their global censorship regime. Perhaps the most notable foreign attempt to imitate the Digital Services Act has been the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act.”
Congressional members also accuse British authorities of using the law to threaten American platforms.
The report claims that Starmer’s administration has gone further than its predecessors, citing warnings that he is “threatening to take X offline in the UK.”
Last month, Ofcom opened an investigation into X after the platform’s AI system, Grok, was reported to have produced sexualized material. The Prime Minister subsequently told officials that “all options [should be] on the table,” prompting widespread concern that the government could attempt to block the site altogether.
Congressional oversight findings referenced in the report suggest that British regulators have previously tried to suppress political discussion online.
During the 2024 riots following the Southport attack, Ofcom was said to have targeted speech that questioned the government’s handling of justice and law enforcement.
The report explains:
“The Online Safety Act paves the way for Ofcom, the UK’s relevant regulatory authority, to regulate how social media platforms ‘should deal with [so-called] disinformation and misinformation.’
British regulators have also used the Online Safety Act to threaten American platforms with regulatory retaliation if they do not ‘embed [British] standards’ on topics like ‘hate’ speech into their content moderation policies.”
To illustrate the growing international concern, the committee highlighted the arrest of Irish writer Graham Linehan at Heathrow Airport last year.
The report recounts:
“Graham Linehan, an award-winning comedy writer, advocate for protection of women-only spaces, and Irish citizen, was arrested by armed police upon his arrival at London’s Heathrow Airport from the United States for three tweets he posted several months prior. Linehan’s possessions were ‘confiscated’ and he was transported to a prison cell before being released on a single bail condition: he could no longer post on X. It was a clear attempt by British authorities to silence a political opponent who resides in the United States.”
Police later abandoned the case. Linehan has maintained that the incident was politically motivated and plans to testify before the US Congress this week, accusing Starmer of eroding the principle of open discussion in Britain.
