UK Government: First Amendment Doesn’t Protect Americans from British Censorship Laws

by David Lindfield

The UK government’s communications regulator Ofcom is facing backlash and a federal lawsuit after asserting that the U.S. Constitution does not protect American citizens from its online censorship laws.

Under the United Kingdom’s sweeping Online Safety Act, Ofcom has been sending enforcement letters to small U.S. platforms, including 4chan and Kiwi Farms.

Ofcom is demanding compliance with British speech regulations and threatening heavy fines for noncompliance.

But the move has triggered what one U.S. attorney calls a “constitutional ambush.”

Preston Byrne, an attorney representing 4chan, Kiwi Farms, and two other American companies, said the regulator’s actions were “frankly asinine.”

“My clients are entirely American,” Byrne said.

“All of their operations are American.

“All of their infrastructure is American, and they have no connection to the UK whatsoever.”

Despite that, Ofcom reportedly threatened the companies with “a £20,000 fine plus £100 daily penalties for 60 days thereafter.”

Byrne responded by filing a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., challenging Ofcom’s jurisdiction and accusing it of attempting to export censorship into the United States.

“We Don’t Care What the UK Thinks”

Byrne said the lawsuit was designed to make three points:

• To demonstrate that U.S. companies are prepared to fight back against foreign censorship regimes.
• To assert his clients’ rights in front of a U.S. federal judge.
• To provoke Ofcom into “doing something stupid,” which he said it promptly did.

After the filing, Byrne said Ofcom sent “a 40-page letter of tremendous length, which is deeply unserious.”

According to Byrne, Ofcom’s response included an explicit admission that it does not “think U.S. law applies on U.S. soil” and intends to rely on sovereign immunity.

It’s a position Byrne called self-defeating.

“This rather undermines the British government’s assertions that it’s made time and again, including to the President, to his face, that the British government is not using its sovereign power to censor American citizens,” Byrne said.

full story at https://slaynews.com/news/uk-government-first-amendment-doesnt-protect-americans-british-censorship-laws/