The UK Has Just Ended Free Speech Forever, Here’s What You Need to Know

 The UK just passed one of the most controversial internet laws yet, the Online Safety Act. In this episode, Neil McCoy-Ward breaks down what it really means for your privacy, encryption, free speech, and the future of the internet. 

Transcript

The UK has just ended over 200 years actually 140 years of free speech. Or 336 years, if you want to be more accurate and go all the way back. This is not clickbait, not a joke. As of today, July 28th, 2025, the United Kingdom has ended free speech in the country.

They're calling it the Online Safety Act, under the guise of "protecting children online" which is ironic, because they can’t even protect children offline in the streets. But now they suddenly care about online safety? Sure. In ten years' time, people will remember this as the day Britain launched its internet surveillance system.

And why isn’t the media covering this? Because they’re also under threat their licenses can be cancelled if they speak out. That’s why many of them are spinning this positively: "We’re protecting the children." No. They’re not. The government doesn’t care. Protests are already being censored under this law. You can’t even see some protests anymore not even on X (formerly Twitter). Why? The fines are so massive that even platforms are taking content down preemptively.

This new law gives the government sweeping powers to censor any online content they find offensive, surveil private messages, and punish social media companies that don't comply. It’s shocking. I’m rarely left speechless, but I am today. I talked about this nearly two years ago on September 21st, 2023 warning that this was coming. They began by using emergency COVID lockdown powers to build an elite government surveillance unit that watched everything people said about vaccines, lockdowns, etc., and censored it using so-called “fact-checking” agencies like BBC Verify. Funny enough, anything with “verify” in the name usually means the opposite.

What’s happening now? Social media platforms are reacting in real-time. Facial scans, ID verification just to access content. Today it’s social media, but tomorrow it will be your banking, your political views, all tied to your digital ID. And that’s the goal digital ID under the pretense of “proving you’re not a criminal.”

So many people are blindly cheering this on. "If you’re not a criminal, you’ve got nothing to hide!" they say. People with high IQs, degrees yet zero common sense. These people think it's okay to scan their faces and verify their IDs on every platform. They think it's okay that protests are being hidden. All in the name of public safety. But the protests are actually about the lack of public safety. And people protesting are being labelled “far-right extremists” and “thugs.”

What do the privacy experts say? They're united. They’re warning this is not technically possible without weakening encryption. That means the government now has backdoor access to private communications. Apple, Meta, WhatsApp, Signal many of them are threatening to pull out of the UK, calling this law dystopian and unworkable.

Even the European Court of Human Rights stepped in. They said this cannot be regarded as necessary in a democratic society and flagged legal concerns at the highest levels. The law allows Ofcom to scan your communications without warrants or judicial oversight. The government hasn't even defined what "safe or acceptable scanning" means it’s entirely up to them.

This law has been compared by civil society groups to authoritarian regimes like North Korea. Amnesty International, EFF, Index on Censorship all of them warn that this law sets a dangerous global precedent for mass surveillance.

Now you're seeing a boom in VPN usage across the UK. People are rushing to get VPNs to maintain some level of privacy online. Personally, I've used NordVPN since 2020. I’ve got the receipts to prove it. NordVPN offers military-grade encryption, no-log policies, threat protection, and more. I highly recommend it especially if you’re in the UK. You can try it risk-free with their 30-day money-back guarantee and get 4 months free with the link in the video description.

So what platforms are being affected? Many: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X (Twitter), Reddit, Wikipedia, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud and yes, even gaming and VR platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, VR Chat, and Meta Horizon Worlds. With VR headsets, your private in-room conversations can be recorded and monitored.

This law has essentially found a way to legally search your private messages—without calling it surveillance. VPN search trends in the UK have exploded. Millions of Brits are already bypassing the law with VPNs. Social media content is already being blocked. On X, you’ll see alerts saying content is unavailable due to local laws. Footage of protests is now censored. Even videos on government policy criticism are being age-restricted or removed.

Elon Musk said it outright: the law’s true purpose is suppression. Already, there are over 358,000 signatures on petitions against the law. But like past protests and petitions during lockdowns, the government just invokes “emergency powers” and skips debate. That’s what they did before, and that’s what they’ve done again.

A national police unit has now been created to monitor everything you say online. Wikipedia is currently suing the UK government over the law. Meanwhile, there’s even talk of banning VPNs in the future. Labour MP Sarah Champion is pushing for Clause 54 to stop VPN use altogether.

It’s not just about child safety. This law is about centralizing control over speech, normalizing surveillance, removing digital anonymity, and conditioning obedience. This is not democracy. It's fear-based control just like in North Korea. They don’t need tanks; they use fear and propaganda. And that's what’s happening in the UK right now.

Children today are less safe than ever. And the people clapping for this don’t even see what’s coming. Leave a comment below let me know what you think. Share this video with anyone who needs to wake up. And again, check out NordVPN it's linked in the description and pinned comment. Stay safe, and God bless.

Make sure to subscribe to the channel. Bye for now.