Latest news with #techRegulation
Telegraph
30-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
White House warns Starmer: Stop threatening US tech companies' free speech
The White House has warned Sir Keir Starmer to stop threatening American tech companies amid mounting backlash over Britain's online safety law. Members of Donald Trump's administration are monitoring the Online Safety Act with 'great interest and concern' after key allies said it was censoring free speech and imposing unfair burdens on US businesses. The law, which regulates online speech, allows the British government to levy massive fines on companies like Apple, Truth Social, and X if it finds that rules on hate speech have been broken. Those in the president's inner circle see the potential penalties as an unwarranted foreign intervention into American free speech. 'President Trump has made it clear that free speech is one of our most cherished freedoms as Americans,' a senior US State Department official told The Telegraph. 'Accordingly, we have taken decisive action against foreign actors who have engaged in extraterritorial censorship affecting our companies and fellow citizens. 'We will continue to monitor developments in the UK with great interest and concern.' Since the law came into effect last week, Ofcom, the UK's online regulator, has written to several American firms ordering them to conform to the act, in letters seen by The Telegraph. It has sparked outrage from US lawmakers and legal experts, who say the overreach is a threat by the UK to silence American companies and citizens. Congressman Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary GOP committee, said the law was an attack on American companies. 'Ask Apple and they would view it as a $500 million attack,' he told The Telegraph. 'There's general concern... and then there's concern on how this impacts American citizens, American companies and infringes on our First Amendment. 'As long as foreign legislators, judges, and regulators continue their attempts to silence US citizens, we will not stop fighting back.' Mr Jordan also raised concerns over the bill's overreach with Peter Kyle, the Science Secretary, on Wednesday. Under the law, social media giants face fines of up to £18m ($24m), or 10 per cent of their annual revenue, if they fail to remove content deemed harmful from their platforms. While the measures are designed to protect young people from dangerous content, critics argue that it pressures platforms into censoring users by removing their content if it is disliked by others, even though it is perfectly legal. Social media apps such as X, Reddit and TikTok have been forced to introduce age verification checks since the bill came into effect last week. The warning to Sir Keir is the latest sign of Donald Trump's willingness to intervene in domestic British affairs amid a growing transatlantic rift over the protection of freedom of speech. During his meeting with the Prime Minister in Scotland, Mr Trump warned Sir Keir not to censor his social-media platform, Truth Social. 'Well, I don't think he's going to censor my site, because I say only good things,' Mr Trump said. In May, The Telegraph revealed that the president sent US officials to meet British pro-life activists over censorship concerns. The diplomats from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour (BDHL) travelled to London in March in an effort to 'affirm the importance of freedom of expression in the UK and across Europe'. Led by Samuel Samson, a senior adviser in the state department, they met with officials from the Foreign Office and challenged Ofcom over the Online Safety Act. Since then, the Trump administration has also raised questions about the conviction and sentencing of several high profile cases like that of Lucy Connolly. Connolly, a former childminder and the wife of a Conservative councillor, is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence over a social media post published in the wake of the killings of three girls in Southport. After rumours spread online online that the killer was an illegal migrant, Connolly called for 'deportation now' and added: 'Set fire to all the... [asylum] hotels... for all I care'. Three Court of Appeal judges rejected the 42-year-old's case application last week, meaning she will not be released before August. And no case has raised concerns in Washington more than the prosecution of Livia Tossici-Bolt, an anti-abortion campaigner. The 64-year-old was handed a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £20,026 ($26,624) in costs for breaching a buffer zone while praying outside an abortion clinic. At the time, the case threatened to jeopardise Sir Keir's trade deal with the United States. In a highly unusual intervention, the State Department's BDHL posted a statement on X saying: 'We are monitoring [Ms Tossici-Bolt's] case. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression.' Ms Tossici-Bolt, who could have been handed a prison sentence, thanked the Trump administration for its intervention. Those closest to the president have long raised concerns about the erosion of free speech in Britain. In a speech at the Munich security conference in February, JD Vance, the US vice-president, cited British pro-life campaigner Adam Smith-Connor, who too was convicted for breaching a buffer zone outside an abortion clinic. 'Free speech in Britain and across Europe [is] in retreat,' Mr Vance said. Before his spectacular fallout with the president, Elon Musk was understood to be pushing Mr Trump to raise curbs on social media regulation in trade talks with the UK. Mr Musk, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist, said Britain's online safety laws amount to 'suppression of the people'. Several American businesses are now poised to bring a federal lawsuit against Ofcom. Preston Byrne, managing partner of Byrne & Storm, PC who is representing some of the US sites, said no foreign power should be allowed to 'cross our waterline'. 'I am instructed by multiple American websites to bring a federal lawsuit against Ofcom,' he said. 'No matter who is the target, the US free speech bar will not allow any American to be censored by a foreign government. No foreign power will be allowed to cross our waterline with unconstitutional and illegal orders.'
Bloomberg
01-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Senate Removes Tax Bill Provision Limiting State AI Regulation
By , Oma Seddiq, and Steven T. Dennis Save The Senate killed a controversial effort to prevent US states from regulating artificial intelligence, delivering a win for critics of the biggest tech companies after a compromise proposal collapsed. Senators voted 99-1 early Tuesday to strip the language out of President Donald Trump's signature tax legislation during a marathon session that began Monday and continued through the night. The overwhelming opposition came despite widespread support for the pause on state AI legislation from Trump administration officials and GOP allies in Silicon Valley.
Bloomberg
30-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Key Senators Strike Deal To Pause State AI Laws For Five Years
The Senate is poised to approve a controversial provision preventing some US states from regulating artificial intelligence, marking a victory for the tech companies, venture capital firms and startups that backed it. The language, which is part of President Donald Trump's signature tax legislation, had drawn opposition from a handful of Republican senators who derided the provision as a giveaway to the biggest tech companies.
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
UK officials could be banned from the US as Team Trump says online safety laws are blocking Americans' 'free speech'
British officials involved in policing the UK's online safety laws could be banned from the United States after the Trump administration vowed to keep out foreign nationals it deems to be censoring Americans. Secretary of State Marco Rubio lashed out at 'unacceptable' behaviour as he launched a new policy could target officials regulating US tech companies. And Ofcom officials could be in the firing line, with the organisation responsible for moderating content consumed in the UK. The Trump administration has already made clear its unhappiness at the UK's tech laws and the upcoming Online Safety Bill, which would tighten controls on who can access content online, as it seeks to help out billionaire-owned tech firms based in the US. Mr Rubio did not name any specific instances of censorship. But US tech companies and the administration have challenged US allies in Europe, alleging censorship of social media platforms. He said it was unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants for social media posts made on US soil. '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,' Rubio said. Some foreign officials have taken 'flagrant censorship actions against US tech companies and US citizens and residents when they have no authority to do so,' Rubio said. It comes as the Trump administration faces accusations it is clamping down on freedom of speech inside America itself. Earlier this week Mr Rubio directed officials to stop scheduling appointments with student visa applicants as they prepare to implement a social media vetting process on foreign students wanting to attend US colleges. Trump officials have repeatedly weighed in on European politics to denounce what they see as suppression of right-wing politicians, including in Romania, Germany and France, accusing European authorities of censoring views like criticism of immigration in the name of countering disinformation. In April, Rubio shut down a State Department office that had sought to counter foreign disinformation, accusing it of censorship and wasting U.S. taxpayer money. In a social media post on Wednesday, Rubio added, 'Whether in Latin America, Europe, or elsewhere, the days of passive treatment for those who work to undermine the rights of Americans are over.' Rubio did not name specific countries or individuals that would be targeted. US social media companies like Facebook and Instagram parent Meta have said an EU content moderation law, the Digital Services Act, amounts to censorship of their platforms. Vice President JD Vance denounced content moderation while in Paris in February, calling it 'authoritarian censorship.' Earlier this week the White House said it was 'monitoring' the case of Lucy Connolly after her bid to be freed from prison over a Tweet which 'stirred up racial hatred' was refused. Connolly was jailed for 31 months after she posted an online rant about migrants hours after killer Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls in Southport on July 29 last year. The former childminder, who is the wife of Conservative councillor Ray Connolly, deleted the post after four hours but was arrested last August and admitted a charge of inciting racial hatred in October. Last week her appeal against her sentence was refused by three Court of Appeal judges meaning she faces serving another eight months behind bars.
Asharq Al-Awsat
28-05-2025
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
US to Issue Visa Bans for Foreign Nationals Who ‘Censor' Americans, Rubio Says
The United States will impose visa bans on foreign nationals it deems to be censoring Americans, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, unveiling a new policy Rubio suggested could target officials regulating US tech companies. Rubio said in a statement that a new visa restriction policy would apply to foreign nationals responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States and said it was unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants for social media posts made on US soil. "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," Rubio said. Rubio's statement did not name specific countries or individuals that would be targeted, but noted that some foreign officials have taken "flagrant censorship actions against US tech companies and US citizens and residents when they have no authority to do so."
