“The witch hunters work like a mob, and if enough of them phone the police, the police are going to come,” says Bernie Spofforth, a political activist who was detained by U.K. police for a social media post.<\/p>\n
It’s coming to the United States, thanks in part to lobbying by “a massive network of NGOs” connected to the U.K. government, says Brian Chau, founder of a new AI-driven investigative journalism outlet called Effort.news. The technique, says Chau, is to smuggle in speech codes and effectively end online anonymity under the guise of “child safety.”<\/p>\n
“In the U.K., you don’t need to break the law to be arrested,” she says. “So if someone says that they feel they have been harmed by what you’ve said, then you can be arrested. If someone says that what you’ve said is deeply offensive, they’re very distressed by it, you can be arrested. It’s insane.”<\/p>\n
Their success could doom free speech on the internet. The good news is there’s a way to fight back.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n https:\/\/reason.com\/video\/2026\/11\/05\/europes-plot-to-end-americans-online-anonymity\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" European regulators and NGOs are pushing their domestic speech laws and surveillance onto the American internet. But there’s a way to fight back. “The witch hunters work like a mob, and if enough of them phone the police, the police … Continue reading