Farage tells US panel Britain is an authoritarian censorship regime

Nigel Farage travelled to Washington on Wednesday to tell a US congressional committee that Britain has become an authoritarian censorship regime, citing recent arrests and prosecutions for online comments and warning that the UKs Online Safety Act risks exporting restrictions that would harm American free speech and technology firms. Farage, leader of Reform UK and a member of Parliament who skipped Parliament’s first week back to give evidence to the House Judiciary Committee, used the Republican-led hearing to press US lawmakers and companies to push back against what he called increasingly punitive policing of online expression in Britain.

In written and oral testimony, Farage highlighted the arrest at Heathrow Airport of Irish writer Graham Linehan and the conviction of Lucy Connolly as examples of a British approach that criminalises “unpleasant, challenging, or incendiary” speech. Linehan said he was detained by armed officers after arriving from the United States over posts on X and was later bailed pending further investigation; the Metropolitan Police said officers arrested a man at Heathrow on suspicion of inciting violence, took him into custody, and later...