Seems like such a short time ago that the "Anglosphere" - the collection of nations that share some versiom of the English language, and with it the classical liberal tradition that made the British Empire and its descendants, both docile (Canada) and unruly (the US) were the standard-bearers of the great traditions of western civilization, including free speech in the interest of open and transparent discourse.
That's because it was a short time ago. A little over 20 years, to be exact.
Good lord, what happened?
The numbers behind the British crackdown on unruly social media speech are shocking, even for those of us who've been following this issue:
Police in the U.K. made an average of over 30 arrests per day in 2023 for online communications that were deemed “offensive,” which amounted to over 12,000 arrests throughout the year, the European Parliament reported in April 2025. In response to riots that broke out in the summer of 2024, the U.K. implemented several digital speech laws that regulate speech.
The U.K. also threatened to arrest and extradite U.S. citizens who made any online statements that could allegedly cause violence, according to CBS Austin. A British army veteran was arrested in August 2022 for denouncing LGBTQ and transgender activists online, which authorities said caused somebody “anxiety.”
The only thing more shocking? The Starmer government's denial that there is any censorship:
“We’re not censoring anyone,” Starmer said. “We’ve got some measures that are there to protect children, in particular from sites like suicide sites, we’ve had too many cases in the United Kingdom of young children taking their own lives and when you look through their social media, they’ve been accessing some sites which talk about suicide and encouraging, if you like, children down that road and that is what we want to stop. Nothing about censoring free speech. This country is proud [to have] free speech in this country, we’ve had it for a very long time and we’re very, very proud of it.”
The Starmer government in the UK is also moving to ban Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), the online services that mask where an internet connection is located.
Labour has previously supported moves to restrict VPN usage when the Online Safety Act was first going through parliament. Prominent backbench MP Sarah Champion launched a campaign against them:
“My new clause 54 would require the Secretary of State to publish, within six months of the Bill’s passage, a report on the effect of VPN use on Ofcom’s ability to enforce the requirements under clause 112. If VPNs cause significant issues, the Government must identify those issues and find solutions, rather than avoiding difficult problems.”
The only real purpose for this is to make government surveillance easier - in this case, literally "for the children".
In the meantime, in Australia, which used to be kind of famous for its embrace of all kinds of freedom, a man is on the brink of going to prison for carrying a sign coverd scabrous obscenity to a demonstration.
Just kidding. The sign was...well, I'll let him explain it:
BREAKING: I now face PRISON TIME in Australia for holding a blank sign outside the Chinese Consulate
— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) July 27, 2025
The LNP conservative controlled Brisbane City Council is now threatening me with arrest and potential jail time for contempt of court unless I pay a $23,000 fine pic.twitter.com/SGclORFBbx
There's a little more to the story, naturally:
Pavlou has a long history of protesting Communist China, and even started (then folded) a political party to that end. Seems like a bit of a gadfly, really.
But that doesn’t explain why police are threatening to jail a man for holding up a blank sign. Or why a ostensibly conservative party seems to care about the precious feel-feels of the Chinese Communist Party.
And that is, of course, the point behind the point; free speech is supposed to protect the unpopular, antimajoritairan opionion. Otherwise what's the point?
While the left claims to "fight" to "protect democracy", they seem to be spending lots of time undercutting it.
