US officials challenge Ofcom’s risk to free speech caused by online safety laws

Exclusive: State department said to have raised concerns over whether new online safety act infringes on freedom of expression

US state department officials have challenged Britain’s communications regulator over the impact on freedom of expression created by new online safety laws, the Guardian understands.

A group of officials from the state department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) recently met with Ofcom in London. It is understood that they raised the issue of the new online safety act and how it risked infringing free speech.