British regulators are sending jail threats to American home addresses over speech that is perfectly legal in the United States.
They found a backdoor into American free speech and have been using it for years.
Now Congress is building the legal weapon to slam that door shut for good.
How Europe's Digital Services Act and Online Safety Act Target American Free Speech
Foreign bureaucrats are rewriting the rules of American free speech without passing a single American law.
They write regulations that sound reasonable – transparency rules, platform safety standards, age verification requirements. Then they demand internal data, embed their auditors inside American social media platforms and websites, and fine you when your content doesn't meet their definition of acceptable speech.
When the EU fined Elon Musk's X €120 million last December, they called it a transparency violation. Marco Rubio called it an attack on the American people. JD Vance said Europe was punishing X for refusing to engage in censorship.
The pattern never changes: foreign regulators don't call it censorship. They call it safety regulations and platform accountability, demand your internal data, then route it to researchers on Brussels' payroll who decide what speech crosses the line.
Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, warns that the data grab is a trap – once European auditors are embedded inside a platform, the next enforcement action is already lined up.
"I think it was a really smart idea by the European Commission to go after things that don't look like they really affect speech, but they do," Tedesco told the Daily Caller.
The UK version – Ofcom and the Online Safety Act – is even more brazen. Ordinary American website owners have been opening their mailboxes to find letters from a British government agency threatening fines and jail time over content that is perfectly legal here.
Most have no idea the notices are unenforceable – what they know is that a foreign government threatened them with criminal prosecution, and they complied immediately.
European censors don't need to win in court when bureaucratic intimidation does the job for free.
The GRANITE Act and HOMEFRONT Act Would Let Americans Sue Foreign Censors
Ofcom is the United Kingdom's official communications regulator – a government agency with the power to investigate platforms, impose heavy fines, and order British internet providers to block websites entirely.
Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom claims jurisdiction over any website accessible to UK users, regardless of where that website is built, hosted, or operated. That includes American websites, run by Americans, on American servers, publishing speech that is fully protected under the First Amendment.
4chan refused to install the age verification checks Ofcom demanded, and the regulator responded with a £450,000 fine and threats of £500-a-day escalating penalties.
Attorney Preston Byrne represents every known company to have publicly refused an Ofcom order. When the notices started arriving, his response was two words.
"F*** you," Byrne told the Daily Caller. "We're not going to obey your illegal and unconstitutional orders. And so we sued them."
A U.S. federal court dismissed the lawsuit on foreign sovereign immunity grounds, but the judge noted that American courts generally decline to enforce foreign judgments that violate the Constitution.
Byrne's real answer is legislation that puts foreign censors in the defendant's chair.
Rep. Michael Rulli's GRANITE Act would strip foreign regulators of sovereign immunity and let Americans drag them into federal court for $25,000 in damages plus attorney's fees.
Rep. Warren Davidson's HOMEFRONT Act goes further – barring any American court or government agency from cooperating with foreign censorship enforcement, blocking extradition for speech violations, and requiring the Attorney General to report annually on every foreign censorship attempt targeting Americans.
Seven bills using this same architecture have been introduced in the last seven months.
Jim Jordan confirmed earlier this year that Congress was watching state-level efforts and moving toward federal action.
The SPEECH Act Proved Congress Can Stop Foreign Courts and Can Do It Again
Congress solved this exact problem once before. The SPEECH Act of 2010 barred U.S. courts from enforcing overseas libel rulings that don't meet First Amendment standards – and foreign defamation judges stopped reaching into America.
GRANITE and HOMEFRONT extend that same protection to every form of foreign censorship.
Tedesco was direct: Americans' speech online is not free until laws like the DSA and the Online Safety Act are off the books.
"The fight over there is really a fight on American soil for free speech," he told the Daily Caller.
Byrne's goal goes further – he wants legislation that stops European notices from reaching American soil entirely. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has called the DSA incompatible with America's free speech tradition.
Europe's entire enforcement strategy amounts to bureaucratic mail and intimidation, aimed at website owners who don't realize the notices landing in their mailboxes carry no legal weight in America.
Byrne's message to Ofcom: "If you want to tell Americans what we can and can't do on U.S. soil, you're going to have to send battleships."
Congress is working to make sure it never comes to that.
Sources:
- Derek VanBuskirk, "Inside Europe's Gambit To Control American Speech," The Daily Caller, October 22, 2026.
- Rep. Warren Davidson, "Davidson Introduces Bill to Block Enforcement of Foreign Censorship Orders Against Americans," davidson.house.gov, September 8, 2026.
- Foundation for Freedom Online, "Federal GRANITE Act Aims to Shield Americans From Foreign Censorship," foundationforfreedomonline.com, August 31, 2026.
- Preston Byrne, "HOMEFRONT Act – A GRANITE-Style Foreign Censorship Shield Bill," prestonbyrne.com, September 8, 2026.
- AFP, "EU Hits Musk's X With 120-mn-euro Fine, Sparking US Ire," October 2026.
