Elon Musk’s X Criticizes UK Online Safety Act Overreach Threatening Free Speech

Elon Musk's social media platform X has strongly criticized the UK's Online Safety Act, arguing that the legislation's expansive regulatory requirements pose a significant threat to free speech while creating a burdensome compliance environment for tech companies. X contends that although the Act aims to protect children from harmful online content, its broad reach, coupled with additional oversight such as a new police monitoring unit and a voluntary code of conduct, has led to excessive censorship and overregulation. The platform has highlighted public resistance to the Act, including a petition to repeal it, and expressed concern that the public may not have fully understood the trade-offs involved when the legislation was passed. Despite these objections, X has implemented age-verification measures in compliance with the law, employing AI-driven facial recognition, account data analysis, and ID uploads, as mandated by the UK media regulator Ofcom, which has set strict technical standards and imposed hefty fines for non-compliance. Critics warn that such stringent measures risk privacy violations and may drive users to bypass restrictions via VPNs. The controversy has sparked political debate in the UK and attracted attention from US lawmakers, who see the Act as a potential threat to free expression.