American lawyers will serve Ofcom with a summons to answer questions about its attempts to censor social media users in the United States within weeks.

A legal complaint, filed in Washington, DC, by Ron Coleman, a New York-based lawyer, aims to bar Ofcom from attempting to enforce the Online Safety Act in America.

Mr Coleman said that British and European laws designed to police the internet must “be absolutely destroyed”.

“That’s going to require aggressive policy and negotiation and muscle from the US,” he told The Telegraph.

At its heart is a question about whether European regulators have the right to tell American companies how to behave.

The next step in the case is to serve Ofcom with a summons to appear in a US court to answer accusations that it failed to properly notify two internet companies of their responsibilities and that it has taken on a political role.

“On information and belief, Ofcom targeted plaintiffs not as part of neutral enforcement activity, but for overtly political reasons aimed at undermining the First Amendment in the United States, intimidating Americans in the free exercise of their constitutional rights, and crippling the American Internet sector,” reads the complaint.

The issue reached a bigger American audience this week when Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, testified before Congress that Britain was at “war with freedom” and called on the US to help campaign against restrictive laws.