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Ofcom to be summoned for grilling over censorship of Americans
8 September 2025
American lawyers will serve Ofcom with a summons to answer questions about its attempts to censor social media users in the United States within weeks. The Telegraph has the story:
A legal complaint, filed in Washington, DC, by Ron Coleman, a New York-based lawyer, aims to bar Ofcom from attempting to enforce the Online Safety Act in America.
Mr Coleman said that British and European laws designed to police the internet must “be absolutely destroyed”.
“That’s going to require aggressive policy and negotiation and muscle from the US,” he told The Telegraph.
At its heart is a question about whether European regulators have the right to tell American companies how to behave.
The next step in the case is to serve Ofcom with a summons to appear in a US court to answer accusations that it failed to properly notify two internet companies of their responsibilities and that it has taken on a political role.
“On information and belief, Ofcom targeted plaintiffs not as part of neutral enforcement activity, but for overtly political reasons aimed at undermining the First Amendment in the United States, intimidating Americans in the free exercise of their constitutional rights, and crippling the American Internet sector,” reads the complaint.
The issue reached a bigger American audience this week when Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, testified before Congress that Britain was at “war with freedom” and called on the US to help campaign against restrictive laws.
And at Heathrow, Graham Linehan, a comedy writer, was arrested by armed police after stepping off a flight from the US over tweets he posted in Arizona.
The case is being brought by two of the internet’s most controversial companies, 4chan and Kiwi Farms.
4chan and its message boards filled with memes, pornography and conspiracy theories have been linked to mass shootings and accused of radicalising young men.
Kiwi Farms is best known for promoting the harassment or trolling of online figures.
Mr Coleman admitted that they made for unattractive clients.
“The thing about unattractive clients is they make great targets for unattractive policies,” he added.
“As a private person, I wouldn’t feel too terrible if either one of them disappeared off the face of the air, right? But it’s the principle of the thing.”
Their legal complaint says that 4chan has been threatened with a £20,000 ($27,000) fine followed by “daily penalties thereafter” for failing to comply with requests for information about their compliance with the Online Safety Act.
Kiwi Farms has received two demands that it conduct an “illegal content risk assessment” or face a fine of £18m or up to 10 per cent of its revenues, whichever is greater.
Their lawsuit accuses Ofcom of “egregious violations of American’s civil rights” including freedom of speech.
And their submission takes delight in spelling out the history of US independence from London.
“Delaware (where 4chan is registered) was a colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain until the Assembly of the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania that declared itself independent of British authority on June 15, 1776, thereby creating the state of Delaware,” it reads.
Worth reading in full.
Troubled that Ofcom is being served a US court summons for trying to extend Britain's Online Safety Act censorship regime across the Atlantic — while Nigel Farage is testifying to Congress about Britain's war on free speech?
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