BRITAIN has become an “illiberal and authoritarian censorship regime”, Nigel Farage will warn the US Congress – raising the arrest of Graham Linehan.
The Reform boss will testify to a free speech investigation tomorrow that the UK has “lost its way” and risks tearing apart transatlantic relations.
Nigel Farage will lash out at an ‘illiberal regime’ tomorrowAlamy
Graham Linehan was arrested over a series of tweets
Mr Farage will directly blame Ofcom’s attempts to police American online content visible by Brits for hitting our economy and putting Sir Keir Starmer on a collision course with the White House.
And he will call for the US to punish countries that restrict free speech with diplomatic and trade penalties.
The highly anticipated appearance before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee comes just a day after comedian Linehan revealed he was arrested over online comments when arriving in the UK from the states.
Mr Farage said tonight: “The Graham Linehan case is yet another example of the war on freedom in the UK. I will discuss this, the Lucy Connolly case and the increasing role of our police in non-crime ‘hate’ incidents on Capitol Hill tomorrow. Free speech is under assault and I am urging the USA to be vigilant.”
The US politicians are probing “Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation”, with the UK’s Online Safety Act and criminal sanctions over speech firmly in their sights.
In written evidence submitted and seen by The Sun, Mr Farage warned the OSA “risks exporting restrictive standards to the United States that will violate the constitutional rights of American citizens” who are protected under First Amendment protections over speech.
And in a move that risks a major row in Westminster, he will urge the US government to seek direct exemption from US hosted content and for US based firms from the scope of UK regulators.
Mr Farage suggests the White House use “diplomacy and trade” to enforce the measures which could impact Britain directly, despite assurances by the PM directly to Donald Trump in July that there would be no censorship of US content.
He will also raise the case of freed mum Lucy Connelly, who was jailed for incitement for a post on X, saying: “The Connolly case captures the UK’s readiness to criminalize merely unpleasant, challenging, or incendiary online speech under a legal threshold markedly different from U.S. law.”
In a written testimony prepared ahead of today’s hearing, Mr Farage adds: “Free speech is a fundamentally British value. We would do well to remember that every signatory of the American Declaration of Independence was, after all, a British subject.
“On the question of civil liberties, Britain has, unfortunately, now lost her way. I will do my part, as a participant in UK democracy, to help our country find its way back to the traditional freedoms which have long bound together our two countries in friendship.
“In the meantime, Congress should draw bright lines: British free speech rules, applicable to Britons, are made in Britain, and American speech rules, applicable to Americans, are made in America.
“Somewhere on this planet of ours, innovators must remain free to build the next generation of platforms without being hamstrung by illiberal and authoritarian censorship regimes that are alien to both American and traditionally British values.
“Right now, that place is America. Those of us in the UK will do what we can to make Britain such a place as well.”
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