Fact Check: Farage calls Online Safety laws “authoritarian” (September 2025)
🗣️ The Claim
In September 2025, Nigel Farage argued that the UK’s Online Safety Act and related EU rules had created an “awful, authoritarian situation,” suggesting the laws amounted to censorship of free speech.
📍 The Context
- The Online Safety Act 2023 came into force in the UK, giving Ofcom powers to regulate tech platforms.
- The law requires companies to remove illegal content and enforce their own terms of service against harmful content.
- Farage framed these rules as evidence of creeping authoritarianism, aligning with his broader free speech narrative.
🔎 The Facts
- What the Law Actually Does
- Platforms must tackle illegal material (child sexual abuse, terrorism) and harmful but legal content (e.g. cyberbullying).
- It mandates transparency from platforms and imposes fines for failing to comply.
- It does not create powers for the government to ban lawful political speech.
- Expert Opinions
- Free speech advocates (Index on Censorship, Open Rights Group) have raised concerns about overreach and vagueness in the Act.
- However, legal scholars stress it is a regulatory framework, not an authoritarian law.
- Ofcom’s Role
- Ofcom enforces the Act as an independent regulator, not a government ministry.
- The focus is on tech companies’ compliance, not policing individual citizens.
- International Comparisons
- The EU’s Digital Services Act has similar goals — tackling illegal content and increasing platform accountability.
- Both laws reflect global trends in regulating Big Tech, not uniquely authoritarian policies.
✅ Verdict: Misleading
Farage’s claim that the Online Safety laws create an “authoritarian situation” is misleading. While there are legitimate debates about free speech and enforcement, the laws are aimed at child protection and platform accountability, not political censorship.