Prime Minister's Questions coincides with an expected budget date announcement, yet free-speech concerns are set to overshadow economic debate. Nigel Farage is testifying in Washington before a House judiciary committee on 'Europe's Threat to American Speech and Innovation,' focused on the UK Online Safety Act. American tech companies oppose the law, fearing excessive fines or jail for noncompliance with UK content rules. Separately, Graham Linehan's arrest at Heathrow over alleged anti-trans social posts has reignited debate about hate-speech enforcement and policing. Linehan's arrest was on suspicion of inciting violence, not under the Online Safety Act, but political figures are linking the incidents.
First, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is in Washington where he is giving evidence to the House judiciary committee on Europe's Threat to American Speech and Innovation. The committee wants to talk about the Online Safety Act, which is opposed by American tech companies who fear it will lead to them facing excessive fines, or even jail sentences, for not complying with UK content regulations deemed unnecessarily strict in the US.
And, second, the arrest yesterday of Graham Linehan, the Irish comedy writer, by five police officers at Heathrow over anti-trans posts on social media has reignited the debate about hate speech laws in the UK, and whether they are being enforced too rigorously by the police. Linehan was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence which is nothing to do with the Online Safety Act but the two issues are bound to be linked, not least by Farage.
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,
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