FEBRUARY 16, 2025
JD Vance described the Online Safety Act as a ‘backslide away from conscience rights’ – REUTERS/Leah Millis
Hundreds of people have been charged with online “speech crimes” amid claims from the Trump administration that civil liberties are under threat in Britain.
Almost 300 people have been charged with spreading illegal “fake news” or sending “threatening communications” since the Online Safety Act came into force in 2023. Dozens have received convictions under the act.
Multiple people were charged under the law following last summer’s rioting in the wake of the Southport stabbings. The riots also led to what are believed to have been among the first convictions under the new rules.
Data from the Crown Prosecution Service, disclosed to The Telegraph under a Freedom of Information request, shows that 292 people have been charged with communications offences since the law came into effect in October 2023.
This includes 23 people who were charged with sending a false communication and hundreds more for sending a threatening communication. So far, 67 people have been convicted under the new rules.
The Online Safety Act, which was passed into law under Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, requires technology giants to tackle dangerous online posts and videos or risk billions of pounds in fines.
It also created a number of new criminal offences. These include cyberflashing, sharing “revenge porn” and sending illegal false communications, more commonly referred to as a “fake news” offence.
This offence banned disinformation that could cause “non-trivial psychological or physical harm”. However, the provision has prompted concerns among free speech advocates, who warned it represented a new form of “speech crime”.
Lord Toby Young, the Conservative peer and founder of the Free Speech Union, said: “The number of people who’ve been charged with this offence is deeply concerning. The problem with trying to criminalise ‘disinformation’ is that it empowers the state to decide what is and isn’t true.”
Lord Young added that the false communications offence was the latest in a number of “speech crimes” created by successive governments. He said: “Causing someone psychological distress should not be a criminal offence.”
After the Southport stabbings, several people were questioned by police over false communications for spreading claims the attacker was a Muslim immigrant. In one instance, a man pleaded guilty to the offence for a livestreamed video on TikTok where he falsely claimed he was “running for his life” from rioters in Derby.
Dimitrie Stoica was jailed for three months and fined £154 for making the claim to his 700 followers, which he said had been a “joke”. The offence carries a maximum penalty of 51 weeks in prison or a fine.
Labour is under pressure from the US to water down Britain’s online safety regime as Donald Trump, JD Vance and Elon Musk rail against what they see as overbearing censorship of American companies in Europe.
Sources close to the White House told The Telegraph last week the UK’s online rules were viewed as “Orwellian” and the US was likely to raise the issue in future talks over trade and tariffs.
Speaking at a security conference in Munich on Friday, Mr Vance said: “In Britain and across Europe free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
He added: “Most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”
Mr Musk, who now holds a role in the White House, has railed against Sir Keir and Britain’s online regulations. He has compared Britain’s digital rules to the “Soviet Union”.
In August, he posted a picture from the TV show Family Guy, featuring a character in an electric chair with the caption: “In 2030 for making a Facebook comment that the UK government didn’t like.”
Peter Kyle, the Technology Secretary, has insisted online safety is “not up for negotiation”.
Legal experts have also questioned the new rules. David Hardstaff, a serious crime expert at the law firm BCL Solicitors, said the fake news offence was “problematic both for its potential to stifle free speech if misused, but equally for its lack of clarity and consistency”.
He said: “Prosecutors face an uphill battle in proving that a defendant ‘knows’ information to be false, and also in proving ‘non-trivial psychological or physical harm to a likely audience’.”
The new offence replaces an earlier law, from 2003, which could also punish false messages that spread “needless anxiety” and carried a lower potential sentence of six months.
Technology giants are also required to remove offending posts under the Online Safety Act. However, in submission to media regulator Ofcom, Mr Musk’s X complained that “false communications” could apply to “many different types of communication on platforms”. It warned that draft regulations risked leading to over-enforcement and a “stymieing freedom of expression”.
A government spokesman said: “We will not let the internet serve as a haven for those seeking to sow division and harm in our communities. That is why we are taking decisive action through the Online Safety Act, ensuring that social media platforms remove illegal content and prevent the spread of illegal disinformation.
“The false communications offence, introduced in January 2024, reinforces this approach by targeting those who knowingly spread false information with intent to cause significant harm, without reasonable excuse. We will not stand by while online activity fuels real-world harm, and we remain committed to protecting the public from such threats.”
Courtesy/Source: The Telegraph
