Social Media Giants Face Fines for Curbing Free Speech
Ministers have warned social media giants that they face huge fines if “overzealous” enforcement of the Online Safety Act ends up silencing lawful free speech. The Telegraph has the story.
Ministers have told platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok they must not restrict access to posts that express lawfully held views.
The warning, in an apparent change of tone from ministers, comes amid a backlash over websites blocking users from viewing material, including parliamentary debates about grooming gangs.
Campaigners have said that free speech is threatened by the Government’s application of the Online Safety Act, which is meant to protect children from harmful content.
J.D. Vance, the US Vice President, used a visit to the UK this week to warn ministers against going down the “dark path” of censorship.
Whitehall sources have expressed concern that social media firms, some of which have criticised the law, “have been overzealous” in enforcing it and must be “mindful” of the right to freedom of expression.
The Science Department, which oversees the legislation, told companies they could face fines if they failed to uphold free speech rules. …
Mr Vance directly challenged the Government on its attitude towards freedom of expression on Friday when he visited David Lammy at Chevening house.
Ahead of a meeting with the Foreign Secretary, Mr Vance said the West had become “too comfortable with censoring” rather than engaging with other opinions.
His comments are the latest sign that Donald Trump’s administration is increasingly concerned about freedom of speech in the UK.
Lord Young of Acton, the founder of the Free Speech Union, said Labour’s threat to fine social media firms should be seen in the light of US pressure.
He said: “This feels performative to me. An attempt to reassure J.D. Vance that the British Government takes free speech seriously.
“In reality, the free speech duties under the Act are a joke and the chances of Ofcom fining a social media firm for failing to comply with them are vanishing to zero.”
Lord Young said that the legislation included powers to compel certain platforms not to remove content that was journalistic or of democratic importance.
He urged Peter Kyle, the Science Secretary, to “get on” with triggering them by deciding which service providers should be put into the top risk category.
Worth reading in full.
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And there’s the nub of it. Quangos empowered by the government (unless overruled by Parliament) decide what are ‘lawfully’ held views. Not ‘you may not unlawfully express your views’, just ‘you may not lawfully hold those views’.
“You must show this; you must not show that.”
Perfect propaganda.
So its micro-management and revenue raising. The social media companies can only show what the governmenr party likes and must show what the elite wants to post. Failing that huge fines.
I await the response from POTUS when the first fines are claimed.
I await social media companies making clear how irrelevant the UK econnomy has become by international comparison when they close their feeds to us.
it looks like they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. A double bind in effect or a catch 22.
How in earth can a society exist when we have such awful governance, awful systems and awful people in positions of unelected power.
As it always has. Governance has always been awful. We just live in times in which our governors have lost a bit control of how the governed are informed, so it’s harder than it’s ever been to maintain the illusion that they aren’t awful.
And to be clear, awful only in terms of how the governed are treated. In terms of the outcomes for the governors themselves, they do a fine job. For themselves. Always have.
I wonder if that is actually the plan…
Make it too much hassle to be in the UK and get them to geoblock the UK themselves, easier than them trying to moderate it…
And to me.
100%
Where are the Newspaper and the MSM coverage of the country wide migrnat protests?
plenty to see on Youtube
“A managed democracy is a wonderful thing… for the managers… and its greatest strength is a ‘free press’ when ‘free’ is defined as ‘responsible’ and the managers define what is ‘irresponsible'” is attributed to Robert A. Heinlein, originating from his novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
Edited to show full quote.
OFCOM is going to get it’s arse handed to them in a courtroom.
This is just a smokescreen, designed to appease JD Vance and the rest of the US Administration’s concern about Britain’s lurch into fully-fledged dictatorship. And well might they be concerned. Once Vance is gone things will revert to what totalitarian British politicians lust for – total control.
Lacking a written Constitution and America’s GOLDEN First Amendment, we are gradually being silenced, the media has blanked protests against the rapist hotels, and the Davos/Soros puppets running the Uniparty pretend all is well..
Obersturmführer Starmer’s every action is against the British people – the Online Harms Act, the Police & Crime Bill, the destruction of family farming, the latest outrage of Digital Identity, & the relentless flood of illegals, now openly chanting Allah Akbar as they head for their all-expenses-paid future:
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/08/10/farage-warns-of-national-emergency-as-illegal-boat-migrants-filmed-shouting-allahu-akbar/
What was it George Orwell says? If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.
Layer upon layer of clutter heaped on top of more clutter. Most of the problems we face comes from Politicians who make a total pigs ear of everything. The “omnipotent busy bodies” just cannot leave anything alone, and then they end up having to back track and U turn and try to fix the mess they make with even more mess heaped on top.
What are they on about? They’re the ones that brought about this ridiculous law in the first place aren’t they? And now they’re saying that they’ll fine people for actually following the law, as well as for disobeying it??!
Oh no! Unintended consequences. The speciality of the political shyte.
So social media is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t.
Kafka… call your office please.