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More and more American politicians are denounced new UK laws requiring several websites and apps, including some US-based, to check the age of users across the pond.
A bipartisan group of Parliamentary members visited London recently and aired concerns with counterparts regarding the UK’s online safety law, which came into effect on July 25th. Vice President JDVance has been criticizing the law for months, with privacy advocates claiming that the law violates free expression and disproportionately harming vulnerable groups.
Vance once again criticized the UK on Friday. This time we will be directly at the start of our visit to the country. Sitting with British Foreign Secretary David Lamy and talking to reporters, Vance warned the UK against going down the “very dark path” of online “censorship,” which he said had been trampled on by the Biden administration.
The UK’s online safety law aims to prevent children from accessing potentially harmful materials online, and internet companies are now asking UK users to verify their age in a variety of ways, including photos of their IDs, credit card providers, or selfies analyzed via age checking software.
But the drastic nature of the law caught some British people by surprise. They are asked to prove their age before listening to songs with explicit lyrics, as well as porn websites, or accessing the message board to discuss sensitive subjects. For example, Reddit restricts access to various pages, including R/Stopsmoking, R/STD, and R/Aljazeera.
Reddit said in a post on law enforcement that for people in the UK it validates age before they can “see certain mature content.” A company spokesperson said R/STD (a message board focusing on sexual health issues) is being restricted due to explicit images. They said R/Stopsmoking is restricted because it deals with harmful substances, and R/Aljazeera is not related to a news organization of the same name, but deals with similar topics – but is restricted to portray serious injuries or violence.
To avoid new laws, the use of virtual private network software that can mask locations for people, also known as VPNs, is surged in the UK
The main argument for American politicians against the law is that they don’t want to follow American tech companies, even if they serve UK customers.
House Attorneys Jim Jordan and R. Ohio said they raised objections with British government officials during a meeting in London at the end of July. In a statement after his return, he said that the law and other European regulations “create a serious, calm effect on free expression and threaten the initial right to amend American citizens and businesses.”
“We need to protect children and maintain harmful and illegal content from these platforms, but we set a dangerous precedent that threatens the center of Western democratic values when governments and bureaucrats suppress speeches under the name of safety or regulation,” Jordan said.
This issue may come to mind at several different venues. If President Donald Trump decides to press for issues with British politicians, it could become a court if it could bring lawsuits or appear in trade negotiations.
Mark Andreessen, a venture capitalist with close ties to the Trump administration and Meta board member, reported Friday that he recently called British leaders to complain about the law. A spokesman for Andreessen said the report was not true.
The UK’s online safety law is one of the most comprehensive national laws that democracy has ever passed to seek to reduce potentially harmful content online in the name of children. Congress passed the law in 2023, and the government wrote detailed rules for two years before it came into effect last month.
The law is notable for its combination of reasons. It is a variety of content that applies to, potential fines, and possible international reach.
A wide range of content is a problem. The “main” focus of the law is online material such as pornography and suicide, but websites are also required for agegate content that involves bullying, serious violence, “dangerous stunts” and “exposure to harmful substances.” It covers relatively mainstream services such as Spotify and Microsoft’s Xbox gaming system.
Non-compliant companies face potential fines of up to 10% of global revenue, potentially billions of dollars for the largest companies. British Regulator Ofcom, short for Communications Office, says companies must use “very effective age guarantees” to limit the most risky types of content.
And the UK has not asserted that it will not allow the border to enforce. Ofcom says it plans to apply the law to services in which UK users are “target market” and services with “substantial numbers” of UK users with services “accessible” by UK users who have “serious risks of serious harm” to such users.
The law appears to hold strong support among British citizens. About 69% said they supported the new rules in a YouGov poll after implementation began, while 46% said they supported “strongly”. However, 52% say they don’t think the law is very effective in preventing minors from accessing pornography.
The law was passed during a previous conservative-led government and came into effect under the current labor-led government.
However, the far-right party reform Britain is pushing for the abolition of the law. Former Congress member, party leader Nigel Farage, calls it “the national restraint of true freedom of speech,” and his party has run high in polls.
“Millions of people have noticed that what they’re riding on their feed is different from what it was,” Farage said at a recent press conference.
Farage also met last week’s Congress visitor members, and while the conflict was heated by farage and Democrats exchanging shaming, according to politics, the conflict appeared to be more about Trump’s freedom of speech restrictions than British law.
British leader Nigel Farage. Reforms Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Most US-based tech companies say they are complying with new laws. In a blog post, Microsoft said that UK Xbox users will begin seeing notifications that “encourage age verification” as a “one-time process,” and actual enforcement will begin actual enforcement starting next year. If users do not follow, Microsoft warned that they would lose access to Xbox’s social features, but would still be able to play the game.
Discord says it implements new default settings for all UK users, and in fact treats everyone like a minor unless you make sure you’re an adult. Discord said users can choose to verify their age with a face scan or ID upload.
According to the BBC, Elon Musk’s X is also restricted with restricted posts, including information about the war in Ukraine and Gaza. X and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
However, some services are not compliant. GAB, the far-right social media site that allows white supremacist views and other extremist content, said in a notice on its website it has received notifications from OFCOM and that the entire UK has decided to block access to the site, rather than complying. In its notice, the company said: “We refuse to adhere to this tyranny.”
Preston Byrne, a US lawyer specializing in technical issues, says in X that he will soon file a lawsuit on behalf of an unnamed client who is trying to counteract the possibility of enforcement of UK law within the United States.
The subject has been simmered for months prior to the implementation of the law, and appeared in February when British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer visited the White House.
At an oval office meeting, reporters asked Trump what he thought of Britain’s approach to freedom of speech, and Trump poses a question to Vance, who expressed his concern.
“Of course, there are special relationships with friends in the UK and friends with European allies. But we know that in reality there are violations of free speech, not just in Britain. Of course, what the British people do in their own country will affect American tech companies and even influence American citizens.
Priorities defended his government’s approach.
“We had freedom of speech in the UK for a very long time. It will last for a very long time. Certainly, we don’t want to get to our entire system.
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandi later said the UK would not make any changes to online safety laws as part of its trade negotiations with the Trump administration.
American privacy advocates are concerned that new state laws targeting Apple and Google app stores as well as age verification laws will bring the internet closer to your home.
“Young people should be able to express themselves online without the government decide that they will access information, talk to the world, play games, or give speeches allowed,” Page Collings, a senior speech and privacy activist at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote in a blog post Tuesday.
President Donald Trump has suggested that Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio could potentially succeed Republican tickets in the 2028 presidential election.
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