British officials face US travel ban over social media censorship
British officials face being banned from the United States if they are found to have breached the free speech rights of American citizens.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said foreign officials 'complicit in censoring' American citizens and media companies will be denied entry to the US.
The visa ban could apply to individuals working for Ofcom, which is the regulator responsible for policing Britain's online safety laws. The US State Department has repeatedly raised concerns over the laws' capacity to curtail freedom of expression.
The announcement is understood to have taken British officials by surprise. Diplomats were seeking clarity from the White House last night.
Announcing the measure, Mr Rubio said: 'For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights.
'It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on US citizens or US residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on US soil.'
He went on to highlight online, saying: 'It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States.'
Britain's online harms laws have drawn the ire of free speech advocates and economists, who warn their broad provisions to tackle harmful online content could lead to excessive censorship and deter investment from American tech giants.
The Online Safety Act is despised by Donald Trump's administration because of the massive fines it can levy on US tech companies.
Under the law, social media giants face fines of up to £18 million or 10 per cent of their annual revenue if they fail to remove harmful content from their platforms.
'In some instances, foreign officials have taken flagrant censorship actions against US tech companies and US citizens and residents when they have no authority to do so,' Mr Rubio said.
'We will not tolerate encroachments upon American sovereignty, especially when such encroachments undermine the exercise of our fundamental right to free speech.'
In the aftermath of the Southport attack in which Axel Rudakubana murdered three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club, officials threatened to arrest, prosecute and extradite American officials who violated hate speech laws.
'We will throw the full force of the law at people. And whether you're in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you, Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said at the time.
Mr Rubio's move is the latest in a series of highly unusual interventions by the Trump administration who are increasingly concerned about freedom of expression in the UK.
On Sunday, The Telegraph revealed the White House was 'monitoring' the case of British woman, Lucy Connolly.State Department officials are examining the treatment of Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, who was jailed for 31 months over a social media post about the Southport attacks.
Campaigners raised her case with Mr Rubio as part of a wider effort to challenge what they regard as draconian hate speech laws across Europe.
Before the intervention, The Telegraph revealed Mr Trump had sent US officials to meet five British pro-life activists over censorship concerns.
The diplomats from the US bureau of democracy, human rights and labour travelled to London in March in an effort to 'affirm the importance of freedom of expression in the UK and across Europe'.
They met with officials from the Foreign Office and challenged Ofcom on the Online Safety Act.
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