cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/26833310
US state department officials have challenged Britain’s communications regulator over the impact on freedom of expression created by new online safety laws, the Guardian understands.
A group of officials from the state department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) recently met Ofcom in London. It is understood that they raised the issue of the new online safety act and how it risked infringing free speech.
The state department body later said the meeting was part of its initiative “to affirm the US commitment to defending freedom of expression, both in Europe and around the world”. During the meeting, Ofcom officials said the new rules were only in place to deal with explicitly illegal content, as well as material that could be harmful to children.
Asked about the meeting, which is understood to have taken place in March, a state department spokesperson said: “As Vice-President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression.”
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It follows months of pressure from figures close to President Trump over free speech. Some have accused the UK government of failing to protect free expression, especially after the riots that took place last summer.
In February, the US vice-president, JD Vance, complained of “infringements on free speech” in the UK. Elon Musk, one of Trump’s closest allies, repeatedly claimed that some prison sentences handed down to people who incited the riots on X were a breach of free speech. X hosts accounts by figures including Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate, who were accused of inciting people to join Islamophobic protests.
Since the riots last summer, the online safety act has been implemented as a way of regulating illegal online content. During a visit to the UK, the US state department team held meetings with Ofcom, the Foreign Office and the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a US group that funds and campaigns on conservative issues.
Among the group was Samuel D Samson, who previously worked for US conservative organisations. He was appointed as a senior advisr at the DRL in January after Trump’s victory. On the day of last year’s US election, he tweeted: “Today we choose God over Pagan idols.”
He has previously taken a close interest in freedom of speech issues, writing about the topic in the American Conservative magazine. The DRL’s interest in Britain marks a pivot by an agency originally set up in the 1970s to advance democracy around the world against the backdrop of the cold war. Rather than Britain’s domestic affairs, the DRL’s advocacy has focused on the Middle East, Russia and China.