In the US, you can’t sue a foreign government, or its “instrumentalities” – and that’s what the US District Court for the District of Columbia has just ruled Ofcom, the British speech regulator, is.
We obtained a copy of the opinion for you here.
4chan Community Support, LLC and Lolcow, LLC, which runs Kiwi Farms, sued Ofcom in an American court in August 2025. In March this year Ofcom fined 4chan £520,000 under the Online Safety Act. The site didn’t pay.
Judge Rudolph Contreras yesterday ruled that 4chan and Kiwi Farms can’t even get a hearing in the US, because Ofcom is a sovereign.
The plaintiffs tried to argue that Ofcom’s behavior wasn’t sovereign conduct, but rather “commercial activity” – and that would have allowed them to sue under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). But the court didn’t buy it.
The sites said this was not ordinary regulation because an American regulator could not have done it, but the court said that was still sovereign activity, “however monstrous such abuse undoubtedly may be.”
The court based this on a Supreme Court ruling in a case that had to do with wrongful arrest, imprisonment, and torture – which the top court said was “peculiarly sovereign in nature.”
But there is good news. In the same opinion, the judge said that American courts “are not necessarily required to enforce foreign penal judgments” anyway. “At the risk of gilding the lily,” he added. Ofcom is going to have a hard time arguing that it's speech fines are enforceable in the United States.
So, the fine was uncollectible in March, and it is uncollectible now. The only difference is that now there’s a US court ruling that says so.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers, Byrne & Storm, P.C., said: “To be clear: Ofcom will never collect a penny of the fines it purported to impose on 4chan, or compel 4chan to obey its orders. Those fines and orders are void in the United States.”
The court “expressly declined to decide whether Ofcom violated our clients’ constitutional rights,” the firm said in a statement.
“Under the rule announced yesterday, a foreign censor enjoys greater protection in an American courtroom than the American citizens it threatens with fines and arrest.”
“This situation is lawless, and only Congress can fix it,” said the lawyers, adding that they were “reviewing the decision and considering all options, including appeal.”
The court did note that Congress could, if it wanted to, allow foreign governments and their “instrumentalities” to be sued in the US – but so far, that hasn’t happened.
There are so far two bills that would do that – GRANITE Act (H.R. 10174), introduced by Rep. Michael Rulli on August 27, and HOMEFRONT Act (H.R. 10309), introduced by Rep. Warren Davidson on September 8.
Meanwhile, Ofcom continues to go after American sites. In July, it closed its case against one it had fined £950,000, admitting that “all possible legal routes under the Act have now been exhausted” – and immediately asked the government for even more powers.
