Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan didn’t attend Wednesday’s House hearing on European online censorship, but his arrest by British police for anti-transgender social media posts encapsulated GOP concerns about the growing regulatory regime abroad and its threat to free speech at home.
Mr. Linehan’s much-publicized arrest on Monday by five armed officers at Heathrow Airport provided a well-timed backdrop for the House Judiciary Committee’s deep dive into the impact of European and British online-safety laws on U.S. speech and innovation.
The star witness was Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, who said that Mr. Linehan made the posts while in Arizona and that he isn’t British – he’s an Irish citizen – meaning that what happened to him could also happen to Americans and others traveling to Great Britain.
“You will be doing us and yourselves and all freedom-loving people a favor if your politicians and your businesses said to the British government, ’you’ve simply got this wrong,’” Mr. Farage told the committee. “At what point did we become North Korea? Well, I think the Irish comedy writer found that out two days ago at Heathrow Airport.”
The committee heard testimony on recent content-moderation laws intended to enhance online safety, notably the European Union’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, and the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act, whose reach stretches to U.S. tech companies doing business in Europe.
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said the measures force social media companies to change their content-moderate rules globally, given the impracticality of trying to enforce standards based on the user’s location, meaning that the laws affect “what we see, what we read, and what we say online here in America.”
That includes U.S. elections. Mr. Jordan cited an August 2024 letter from the EU warning X owner Elon Musk about amplifying “harmful content” in violation of the DSA, ahead of his interview with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Mr. Musk went ahead with the interview anyway.
“We should be protecting our citizens,” said Rep. Jeff Van Drew, New Jersey Republican. “Instead, we’re watching foreign bureaucrats come to our country and try to force United States companies to censor humor, satire and news they don’t like. It’s backwards, it’s bizarre, it’s perverse, and it’s weird.”
Democrats countered by pounding the Trump administration, saying the president has jeopardized free speech by defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, removing COVID-19 content from federal websites and moving to deport foreign students involved in anti-Israel activism.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the committee’s top Democrat, blasted the hearing as a “drive-by hit against a strong Democratic ally” and slammed Mr. Farage as a “Putin-loving free-speech imposter and Trump sycophant.”
“There is a free speech crisis in America today, but there’s no free speech crisis in Britain,” Mr. Raskin said. “U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is not shutting down GB News, where Mr. Farage has his own show.”
Lorcan Price, legal counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom International, said penalties for platforms that fail to enforce the DSA rules include fines of up to 6% of the company’s global annual revenue.
“Under the DSA, what happens in Europe won’t stay in Europe,” Mr. Price said in a statement after the hearing. “The internet is global. If American policymakers don’t push back against the DSA model, the same speech restrictions now emerging in Europe will be imported here.”
The criminal penalties are severe. A British woman, Lucy Connolly, was sentenced to 31 months in prison for a profane 2024 post calling for mass deportations and setting fire to hotels with illegal immigrants.
She deleted the post after three hours and apologized, saying she was reacting to the stabbing deaths of three girls at a dance class by what she thought was a Muslim immigrant. It turned out the suspect was born in Wales to Rwandan immigrants.
Mr. Linehan said he was hospitalized after his blood pressure spiked while he was being detained for suspicion of inciting violence for online comments made in April criticizing the transgender-rights movement.
He said authorities flagged three X posts. For example, the April 20 post said: “If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.”
Mr. Linehan said his only bail condition was that “I am not to go on Twitter,” referring to the online platform renamed X.
In 2023, there were 12,183 arrests in the United Kingdom for offensive posts, the chairman said.
“Graham Linehan is an Irish citizen who posted something while in America and then gets arrested when he goes to the United Kingdom for some, quote, ’offensive posts,’” Mr. Jordan said. “That’s where this is headed. That’s exactly where this is all headed.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.