Free speech social media platform Gab has blocked access to the entire United Kingdom, days after video-sharing service BitChute also discontinued services to UK residents.
Founder and CEO Andrew Torba revealed on Tuesday that British communications regulator Ofcom was ordering Gab to surrender user information, leaving him with no choice but to pull out of the country.
Ofcom last month began sending letters to platforms warning of fines of up to up to £18 million or 10% of global revenue, whichever is higher, for failing to tackle illegal content – including speech offences – citing the Online Safety Act of 2023.
Our latest threatening letter from Ofcom ordered us to disclose information about our users and operations. We know where this leads: compelled censorship and British citizens thrown in jail for “hate speech.”
We refuse to comply with this tyranny.
The only way to vote… pic.twitter.com/1HsNcEHSSy
— Andrew Torba (@BasedTorba) April 15, 2025
“Our latest threatening letter from Ofcom ordered us to disclose information about our users and operations. We know where this leads: compelled censorship and British citizens thrown in jail for ‘hate speech’,” Mr Torba said on X.
“We refuse to comply with this tyranny. The only way to vote against the tyranny of the UK’s present regime is to walk away from it, refuse to comply, and take refuge under the impervious shelter of the First Amendment.
“The UK’s rulers want their people kept in the dark. Let them see how long the public tolerates it as their Internet vanishes, one website at a time.”
UK users attempting to access Gab are now shown a screen with a Union Jack and a 1644 quote about free speech from John Milton that reads “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties”.
An explanation of the domain restriction adds: “Gab is an American company with zero presence in the UK. Ofcom’s demands have no legal force here. To enforce anything in the United States, they’d need to go through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty request or letters rogatory. No U.S. court is going to enforce a foreign censorship regime. The First Amendment forbids it.
“Ofcom will likely try to make an example of us anyway. That’s because the UK’s Online Safety Act isn’t about protecting children. It’s about suppressing dissent.
“They’re welcome to try. The idea that a British regulator can pressure a U.S. company that’s IP-blocking the entire UK is as farcical as it is futile. If anything, it proves our point: censorship doesn’t work. It only reveals the truth about the censors.
“We proudly join platforms like Bitchute in boycotting the United Kingdom. American companies should follow suit. The power of the UK’s parliament ends where the First Amendment begins.”
Gab’s decision came after video-sharing website BitChute, which is similarly dedicated to free speech, told its users it was facing “unacceptable legal and compliance risks” due to Ofcom threats, and was therefore restricting access to UK users.
The move caused VPN usage and Google searches for “BitChute VPN” to spike in the UK.
Mr Torba last month described the Online Safety Act as a “textbook example of the left’s manipulative use of language”.
“Just look at how it’s framed—who could possibly oppose something called ‘online safety’? It’s sold to the public as a tool to combat obviously illegal content like child exploitation—things no one disagrees with,” he said.
“But buried in the fine print are vague ‘hate speech’ clauses, which serve as the real tool for narrative control. That’s the true objective: to police thought and silence dissent under the guise of protecting people.”
US officials, including Vice-President JD Vance, have expressed concerns about UK government censorship, and in March representatives from the state department met with Ofcom in London to discuss the Online Safety Act and free speech.
A state department spokesperson told The Guardian: “As Vice-President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression.”
Mr Vance has previously described free speech in the UK as being “in retreat” and warned the US’s European allies that he believed military support should be contingent on respect for American values such as free speech.
Header image: Left, Andrew Torba. Right, a message shown to Gab users in the UK (Gab).
