Reform Party says they would repeal ‘dystopian’ Online Safety Act

Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf will find other ways to protect children, while admitting to not knowing how

Nigel Farage and his close confidant Zia Yusuf spent a lot of time discussing the new act, which came into force last week, at a press conference in Westminster billed as discussing crime.

They particularly discussed its approach towards social media, per The Guardian.

Farage used the discussion on the new act to double down on migration. Claiming that the arrival of people from certain countries and certain cultures was to blame for an increase in the number of rapes and sexual assaults in the UK.

Farage and Yusuf claim a Reform government would immediately repeal the Online Safety Act and seek alternative ways to protect children from harmful online content; however, they admitted to not yet knowing how to.

"So much of the act is massive overreach and plunges this country into a borderline dystopian state," said Yusuf, who now leads a team looking for efficiencies in councils the party runs.

Yusuf goes on to claim that the power given to Ofcom, a media regulator, to moderate harmful content "forces social media companies to censor anti-government speech".

"Any student of history will know that the way countries slip into this sort of authoritarian regime is through legislation that cloaks tyranny inside the warm fuzz of safety and security and hopes nobody reads the small print," Yusuf continued.

Yusuf goes on to say that parts of the act intended to protect children from harmful content, such as age verification, are pointless, as children could simply use VPN proxy servers to log in as if they were outside of the UK.

When Farage was asked how Reform would then protect children, he admitted he did not know how, but said his party had expertise which the current government do not have.

"Can I stand here and say that we have a perfect answer for you right now? No," he said. "Can I say that as a party, we have more access to some of the best tech brains, not just in the country, but in the world? That I can say to you."

When Prime Minister Starmer was asked about the act before meeting in Scotland with Donald Trump, Starmer said it was "not censoring anyone" and the sole purpose of the act was to protect children from harmful content, particularly about suicide.

Starmer added that the UK has had free speech "for a very long time," adding: "We’re very, very proud of it, we will protect it forever."