Ofcom, the UK’s media and online communications regulator charged with enforcing the country’s draconian Online Safety Act (OSA) has claimed that the First Amendment does not protect American companies from its fines.
The UK regulator is attempting to impose a 20,000 GBP fine on 4chan, an American-based discussion forum known for both political incorrectness and its pivotal role in shaping internet culture. Ofcom has also targeted Kiwi Farms, a discussion board with a similar reputation, and two other American websites.
In response to a lawsuit filed by the companies in Washington D.C., Ofcom claimed that its fines superseded First Amendment protections:
“We also note 4chan’s claim that it is protected from enforcement action taken by Ofcom because of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. However, the First Amendment binds only the US government and not overseas bodies, such as Ofcom, and therefore, it does not affect Ofcom’s powers to enforce the Act in this case.”
In a comment to Reclaim the Net, Preston Byrne, a lawyer for 4chan and Kiwi farms, said that the purpose of his clients’ lawsuit was to “demonstrate the toothlessness” of international censorship bodies to enforce their mandates in the United States, “where most of the internet is based.”
Byrne is also proposing a state law that would penalize any foreign body attempting to impose a fine on an American company for First Amendment protecting speech, with penalties of $1 million per violation.
The rise of foreign online speech laws is a major part of the censorship industry’s plan to ensure the suppression of political viewpoints continues despite the U.S. administration.
This “transatlantic flank attack” was directly funded by the U.S. federal government under the previous administration, which used taxpayer funds to capacity-build the proponents of censorship in the European Union as well as Brazil.
In 2023, in the wake of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter (now X), investigations from the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, and cooling attitudes towards censorship across Silicon Valley, members of the global censorship complex mused that foreign regulations like the EU’s Digital Services Act were key to ensuring that censorship teams in Big Tech companies remained staffed.
