The UK’s Online Safety Act mandates that platforms like X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Meta, and others proactively identify and restrict access to content deemed “harmful.” This includes not just illegal material but vaguely defined “legal but harmful” categories such as misinformation, hate speech, or anything that might cause “psychological harm.”
Platforms face fines up to 10% of their global revenue for non-compliance, incentivizing overzealous moderation. The result? Age-gating mechanisms – requiring users to upload IDs or submit to biometric scans – that deter access to everyday political content vital to keeping the electorate informed.
The Foundation for Freedom Online has compiled a list of prominent censorship examples caused by the OSA, from politician’s speeches to historical commentary and 19th-century paintings:
1. MP’s speech on grooming gangs
Katie Lam, an elected member of parliament for the UK Conservative party, had her speech to the UK parliament about Muslim Pakistani rape gangs put behind a filter on X.
2. Videos of anti-mass migration protests
This summer, there have been dozens of spontaneous grassroots protests across the UK against the government’s failure to control mass migration. These protests have taken place outside hotels that have been used to house migrants while their claims are processed, a state of affairs which has seen rising crime in those areas. Soon after the Online Safety Act came into effect, X users reported that livestreams of the protests were being placed behind age verification filters. UK government ministers have specifically noted that the OSA could be used to contain disturbances over mass migration.
3. Testimony of a grooming gangs survivor
Testimony from a victim of UK grooming gangs was censored under the Online Safety Act due to graphic content. Access to a Reddit community for victims of sexual assault has also been placed behind an age filter.
4. MP’s video warning of the dangers of collapsing birth rates
Neil O’Brien, a Conservative Party MP, is a leading campaigner for pro-parenting policies in the UK. In a video alongside family policy expert Phoebe Arslanagić-Little, O’Brien argues that something needs to be done about Britain’s collapsing birth rates. “If we don’t fix this problem, then our society is just not going to exist in the way it has done,” said O’Brien. The video was placed behind an age filter because of the Online Safety Act.
5. Satirical account mocking multicultural Britain
The account “YooKay aesthetics,” run by popular X user Kunley Drupka, chronicles the visual transformation of Britain as mass immigration takes effect: the rise of halal butcher shops, mosques, niqabs, and other previously-alien sights. Although the account consists mainly of pictures and video without commentary, it was still censored under the OSA.
6. War footage from Gaza and Ukraine
Proving that the Online Safety Act’s censorship censors content of interest to leftists as well as the political right, footage from Gaza has also been placed behind age filters, according to the BBC. According to the report, a Reddit community for discussing the conflict in Ukraine has also been placed behind an age filter.
7. A post calling for single-sex public restrooms
The issue of whether restrooms should be single-sex or unisex has become a prominent issue since the progressive left embraced the cause of transgenderism, with critics arguing that unisex restrooms make women unsafe. A post advocating for single-sex restrooms was censored under the OSA.
8. A humorous blog post on the decline of the name ‘Keir’
Guido Fawkes, a leading political blog in the UK, had one of its posts placed behind an age filter on X, prompting the blog to recommend that “everyone in the UK downloads a VPN.” The post was a light-hearted item about the plummeting popularity of the name “Keir” for newborns since the new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer took office.
9. A Historical account of Richard the Lionheart
Richard I of England, known as Richard the Lionheart, was England’s most famous participant in the Crusades, leading an English army to do battle with the Ayyubid ruler Saladin during the Third Crusade (1189 – 1192). A post about Richard I’s crusading activities, including a mass execution of prisoners, was deemed too graphic to remain uncensored under the Online Safety Act.
10. A Celebrated 19th-Century Painting
Saturn Devouring his Son is a painting by Francisco Goya, a Spanish painter of the Romantic era, sometimes called the “last of the Old Masters.” The painting depicts the Greek mythological titan, Cronos (or Saturn in Roman mythology), devouring his son. In the mythology, Cronos consumes his children due to a prophecy that one of his offspring (Zeus) would destroy him. Per the BBC, the famous painting was put behind an age filter on X due to the Online Safety Act.
11. Criticism of the Online Safety Act
Benjamin Jones is the director of case management at the Free Speech Union, which tracks censorship and threats to academic freedom in the UK. A post from Jones compiling examples of posts censored by the Online Safety Act was censored by the Online Safety Act.
