US Companies Take Ofcom to Court Over “Unlawful” Censorship Under Online Safety Act

 The implementation of the latest phase of the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) last month is already impacting on US tech firms, with X imposing age-restrictions on content relating to the grooming gangs in order to comply with its so-called child protection provisions. Elsewhere, tensions have been rising, with President Donald Trump needling Sir Keir Starmer over free speech on his recent visit, and a delegation of US lawmakers led by Republication Representative Jim Jordan blasting the state of UK free speech earlier this month. A State Department human-rights report has likewise warned of “serious restrictions” on free speech in Britain in the past year.

Now US firms and free-speech activists are taking the fight to Ofcom, the communications regulator, directly. Lawyers for 4chan, the anonymous image-board site, and Kiwi Farms, a “website and discussion forum that focuses on Internet culture”, have today filed a lawsuit against Ofcom in US federal court, the first of its kind.

As part of its enforcement regime for the new OSA rules, Ofcom has been issuing escalating compliance notices to the two sites over the past few months regarding their regulation of speech for UK users. But for a notice to be served by a foreign power against a US company, typically it would have to go through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) to be valid, passing through both the US State Department and the Department of Justice....<<<Read More>>>...