The US right leaning forum website GAB has blocked internet users located in Britain. UK users can now only see a landing page explaining that UK internet censorship laws are unacceptable to the free speech loving forum. The website explains its actions
as follows: ATTENTION: UK Visitor Detected
The following notice applies specifically to users accessing from the United Kingdom.
Access Restricted by Provider
After receiving yet another demand from the UK's speech police, Ofcom, Gab has made the decision to block the entire United Kingdom from accessing our website.
This latest email from Ofcom ordered us to
disclose information about our users and operations. We know where this leads: compelled censorship and British citizens thrown in jail for hate speech. We refuse to comply with this tyranny.
Gab is an American company with zero
presence in the UK. Ofcom's demands have no legal force here. To enforce anything in the United States, they'd need to go through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty request or letters rogatory. No U.S. court is going to enforce a foreign censorship regime.
The First Amendment forbids it.
Ofcom will likely try to make an example of us anyway. That's because the UK's Online Safety Act isn't about protecting children. It's about suppressing dissent.
They're
welcome to try. The idea that a British regulator can pressure a U.S. company that's IP-blocking the entire UK is as farcical as it is futile. If anything, it proves our point: censorship doesn't work. It only reveals the truth about the censors.
We proudly join platforms like Bitchute in boycotting the United Kingdom. American companies should follow suit. The power of the UK's parliament ends where the First Amendment begins.
The only way to vote
against the tyranny of the UK's present regime is to walk away from it, refuse to comply, and take refuge under the impervious shelter of the First Amendment.
The UK's rulers want their people kept in the dark. Let them see how
long the public tolerates it as their Internet vanishes, one website at a time.
Update: Ofcom responds
23rd April 2025. See
article from ofcom.org.uk
The Online Safety Act introduces new rules for providers of online user-to-user, search and pornography services, to help keep people in the UK safe from content which is illegal in the UK, and to protect children from the most
harmful content such as pornography, suicide and self-harm material.
Wherever in the world a service is based, if it has links to the UK, it now has duties to protect UK users. This includes having a significant number of UK
users, or that the UK is a target market. These rules will also apply to services that are capable of being used by individuals in the UK and which pose a material risk of significant harm to them.
The Act only requires that
services take action to protect users based in the UK -- it does not require them to take action in relation to users based anywhere else in the world.
Ofcom believes its flexible approach to risk assessment and mitigation allows
all services to take appropriate and proportionate steps to protect UK users from illegal content. Some services might seek to prevent users in the UK from accessing their sites or parts of their sites, instead of complying with the Act's requirements to
protect UK users. That is their choice.
If a service restricts UK users' access, that action would need to be effective in order for the service to fall out of scope of the Act. The key test remains whether the service has links
to the UK. This will depend on the specific circumstances (including whether it is still targeting UK users, for example, by promoting ways of evading access restrictions). Ofcom would assess whether a service is in scope on a case-by-case basis and,
where the Act applies, would consider the service's compliance with the law and, where necessary, use our investigation and enforcement powers.
We recognise the breadth and complexity of the online safety rules and that there is a
diverse range of services in scope.
New regulation can create uncertainty and navigating the requirements can be challenging. Ofcom is committed to working with providers to help them comply with the Online Safety Act and protect
their users. We have therefore developed a range of tools and resources to make it easier for them to understand -- and comply with -- their obligations. We also recently published a guide to help small services navigate the Online Safety Act.
