UK Labour Party’s bid to stifle VPNs a ‘longterm pattern’
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The article reports on criticism of the U.K.’s Online Safety Act and its possible effects on internet anonymity, highlighting comments by Washington Examiner columnist Tiana Lowe Doescher. She says the law — and proposals such as banning vpns after their use rose following the Act’s passage — are part of a longer Labor goverment effort under Keir Starmer to close off online workarounds and broaden state control over content. Doescher downplays comparisons to Iran but warns a VPN ban would put the U.K. alongside authoritarian states like North Korea.
U.S. officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance, have expressed concern the law could lead Britain down a “very dark path” of censorship. Doescher contrasts narrow, state-level U.S. measures (like age verification for pornography) wiht the Online Safety Act’s sweeping definitions of “harmful content,” and notes the U.K.lacks U.S.-style free‑speech protections. She also points to rising arrests for speech-related offenses and argues the government has paid insufficient attention to physical harms to children.In response, companies such as Aylo (operator of Pornhub) are pulling back from the U.K.; Pornhub will stop accepting new users beginning Feb. 2.
UK Labour Party’s bid to stifle VPNs a ‘longterm pattern’ against anonymity: Tiana Doescher
Washington Examiner economics columnist Tiana Lowe Doescher said Wednesday that the scrutiny over the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act is “clearly” a bid to shut down “workarounds for internet anonymity.”
Various United States officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have criticized the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, a set of laws that aims to protect children and adults by tasking social media companies and search services with online safety. Vance warned last year that the U.K. could go down a “very dark path” of censorship with this law, saying the U.S. went down this path under the Biden administration.
The U.K.’s use of Virtual Private Networks has increased after the Online Safety Act passed last year, prompting some U.K. ministers to float a possible ban on VPNs.
Doescher downplayed the idea that the U.K.’s clampdown on internet use is similar to Iran’s, though a ban on VPNs would put the U.K. in the company of countries like North Korea that have enacted such bans.
“I think, as far as why U.S. officials or why our diplomats are so concerned, beyond just the special relationship and affection that we have four our older sibling the U.K., is the fact that clearly this is just part of a longer pattern of the Labour government under Keir Starmer wanting to make sure that there are no workarounds for internet anonymity,” Doescher said on GB News.
Doescher added that individual U.S. states will mandate age verification “specifically, very narrowly tailored” for websites like pornography, and this hasn’t led to “overreach.” Meanwhile, the U.K.’s Online Safety Act has “sweeping and broad” definitions of what counts as “harmful content,” ensuring that the state has “total control.”
“And again, when the definitions of what constitutes harm are very narrow, the U.K. obviously doesn’t have a First Amendment the same way the U.S. does. You are a separate country, you have certain prerogatives,” Doescher said.
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“But then, when you go through the minutiae of bans on bullying content or content, which incite hatred against people who have the characteristic of gender reassignment, everyone sees the direction that the U.K. is going.”
Doescher also said while arrests for “speech-related offenses” have tripled in the last decade, the Labour government has given “very little attention” to physical harm on children, citing statistics that “seem to indicate” that the U.K. has the highest rate of rape “of any other European nation.”
Aylo, a Cyprus-based company operating various pornography websites like PornHub, has said it will “no longer participate in the failed system” put in place under the Online Safety Act.
Beginning Feb. 2, Pornhub will no longer accept new users.
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