Britons flood to US Government's 'free speech portal' in bid to flee 'censorship' at home
The Trump administration's new "free speech portal" is being flooded by Britons complaining about censorship, a senior US official has said.
Sarah Rogers, the State Department's under-secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, said the newly established freedom.gov website - designed to bypass to bans on "hate speech" in places abroad - has been inundated with complaints from British users.
The website had been established this year as a “censorship circumvention project” by the Trump administration - which has long voiced its concerns over free speech in Britain and Europe.
At an event at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, Ms Rogers revealed that the "clear majority of visitors to that landing page are Brits".
With the website still under development, that page is currently the only feature available.
It features a picture of US revolutionary Paul Revere, alongside the text: “Freedom is coming. Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”
The senior Trump administration official said: “It’s no coincidence. America, our roots are in Britain, the roots of our common law are in Britain.
"We have more in common with these people than divides us. Just because Government and key sectors of civil society are hostile to freedom of speech doesn’t mean the people are.”
In December, the US Government's national security strategy outlined plans to back right-wing movements across Europe, and accused the EU of suppressing free speech and silencing voices critical of migration.
It read: “American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history.
"America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.”
The 33-page document also looked at possible funding think tanks and other like-minded groups which "advance American priorities" across Europe.
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Ms Rogers has denied accusations of the US directly funding right-wing parties in Europe - such as Reform UK and Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) - adding she believes it would be "a mistake to see it as America’s goal to put any particular party in power in Europe".
She told the event: “I think it is America’s role to advance receptivity among European publics to certain ideas: ideas like ‘mass migration disrupts societies’; ideas like ‘Europe should take a stronger hand in its own defence’; ideas like ‘the government should focus on policing the streets, not the tweets’.
"It’s not just populist far-right parties - so-called ‘far-right parties’, I think these parties actually have views that are pretty mainstream in some instances - that have come around to those concerns.”
News of the popularity of America's "free speech portal" among Britons comes as as police chiefs in the UK called for internet restrictions for more than 12 million Britons.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) and National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) have urged authorities to block children from using social media sites, AI and gaming apps which fail to ban "high-risk" features.
The police bosses argued the UK's more than 12 million under-16s should not have access to sites which do not block "harmful content" from being showed, and platforms which enable children from being approached through private messaging.
In February, Ms Rogers told GB News that "nothing was off the table" to open up "authoritarian, closed societies" which censor the internet, amid a row between Labour and Elon Musk's X platform.
She added: "Given the pro-censorship inclinations of the British state in recent memory, I can't say that we'll be shocked" if the Government banned it.
The senior Trump administration official had previously mocked Labour's promise to "ensure women and girls are safe online" by pointing out how "in the real world" one of the party's council leaders called grooming gang victims "white trash".
Meanwhile, US lawmaker Anna Paulina Luna has in the past threatened to sanction both the Prime Minister and the UK itself if Labour banned X.
It would also place Britain in the same tier as countries like China, Iran and Russia.
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