The response of an American company to a campaign of censorship by the United Kingdom has left officials there “humiliated,” according to a report at the Gateway Pundit.
It’s because the campaign, by the U.K. government under its “Online Safety Act,” purports to be able to censor an American company that operates online, and that company’s lawyers have delivered a stinging rebuke to attempts to demand it provide information, and behave as the U.K. government demands.
The genesis of the dispute is that the British have targeted 4Chan, a discussion board where users anonymously post unfiltered comments “that sends elites into fits,” the report said.
A branch of the U.K. government, Ofcom, for Office of Communications, started investigating it because it didn’t like some of the comments, and then demanded the company hand over information.
The American company said no, using more words than just that, including reminding the British of the Battle of Yorktown, the decisive victory in 1781 where the British lost the war, leading to the Treaty of Paris in 1783, “in which the British acknowledged the independence and sovereignty of the Thirteen Colonies and subsequently to the establishment of the United States.”
“U.K. law applies on U.K. soil to U.K. people … My objective is to remind the U.K. that the Battle of Yorktown had political consequences, as they seem to have forgotten,” said lawyer Preston Byrne, representing the company.
I mean, UK law applies on UK soil to UK people. Only Parliament can repeal it.
My objective is to remind the UK that the Battle of Yorktown had political consequences, as they seem to have forgotten. https://t.co/NRLT03Spn9
— Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) August 16, 2025
He further posted online an explanation that Ofcom apparently is pursuing – and prosecuting – 4Chan, a “United States company, incorporated in Delaware, with no establishment, assets, or operations in the United KIngdom.”
“American businesses do not surrender their First Amendment rights because a foreign bureaucrat sends them an e-mail,” the lawyers warned.
Byrne & Storm, P.C. (@ByrneStorm) and Coleman Law, P.C. (@RonColeman) represent 4Chan.
We issue this statement on behalf of our client in response to press reports indicating that the U.K. Office of Communications, aka @Ofcom, intends to fine our client. pic.twitter.com/SVjmzlyuKK
— Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) August 15, 2025
“The prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, was reportedly warned by the White House to cease targeting Americans with U.K. censorship codes,” the lawyers wrote.
Byrne wrote, “The U.K. government should now understand that any attempt to touch any American company, however small, will be met with a coordinated U.S. legal response.”
Ofcom, in fact, is threatening fines of more than $27,000 plus daily penalties for refusing to cooperate with its censorship, the report said.
