The British government has begun aggressively extending its censorship regime beyond its borders, invoking the sweeping powers granted by the Online Safety Act 2023 to demand compliance from foreign-based platforms. Pro-free speech websites like Gab and Kiwi Farms are among the first targets in this international campaign to enforce the UK’s standards of “online safety” — a term critics argue is being used as a smokescreen for state-sanctioned thought control.

Gab, a US-based platform known for its staunch defense of First Amendment protections, has refused to capitulate. The UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) is threatening the company with crushing penalties—up to £18M ($23.3M) or 10% of global revenue — for failing to submit to British censorship demands. Gab, in turn, is reporting the UK government to the United States Trade Representative and the Department of Justice, calling for retaliation and the imposition of trade tariffs.

Gab CEO Andrew Torba and his team did not mince words in their response. “We will not pay one cent,” their statement declared, emphasizing that Gab will not yield to what it describes as “tyrannical demands” from a foreign government.

The platform asserts that the UK’s attempt to dictate speech policies to an American company constitutes a dangerous precedent — one where governments believe they can impose their domestic laws globally, chilling free expression in the process.

The notice Gab received from Ofcom, dated March 26, 2025, demanded a response by March 16 — a nonsensical timeline and blunder that Gab used to highlight what it sees as the reckless, bureaucratic overreach driving this censorship push.

The company has called on its users to rally in defense of digital free speech and to contribute financially to ongoing legal and technical efforts to resist.

Meanwhile, Kiwi Farms — a forum often targeted by legacy media for its unfiltered content — has responded in its own way. Visitors from the UK are met with a blunt message: “You are accessing this website from the United Kingdom. This is not a good idea.” The page links directly to the Ofcom letters sent to the site, which claim jurisdiction over any platform with a “significant number” of UK users — a nebulous standard that could apply to nearly any global site.

Kiwi Farms warns UK users that their online activity is no longer private, noting that without Cloudflare’s IP masking (which they no longer use), British authorities can directly monitor where citizens connect. The site advises UK users to employ VPNs or Tor for protection and makes clear its refusal to subject itself to foreign censorship edicts.

Free speech supporters see the Online Safety Act as a deeply flawed regulation, part of a broader, deliberate strategy to quash dissent and sanitize online spaces. Gab explicitly warns that failure to resist this extraterritorial push could spell doom for other US tech firms, stating, “If they let the UK censor us, every other American tech company is next.”

This episode echoes earlier confrontations — Gab, for instance, was deplatformed in 2018 by hosting providers and payment processors due to its refusal to comply with subjective “hate speech” enforcement standards. Yet the platform has not wavered. Its leadership maintains that free expression must remain a non-negotiable principle, even when it means standing alone against powerful state actors.

The UK’s aggressive approach to global internet governance has now drawn the ire of platforms that were never subject to its jurisdiction. Whether this escalating standoff will trigger broader geopolitical consequences — particularly if the US government steps in — remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the battle over who controls the flow of information online is entering a new, more dangerous phase. And for platforms like Gab and Kiwi Farms, surrender is not an option.

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This article (UK Tries To Wield Censorship Laws Globally, Clashing with Gab and Kiwi Farms over Free Speech and Jurisdiction) was created and published by Reclaim the Net and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Cindy Harper

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