Donald Trump to help Britons bypass online safety laws

James Titcomb

Thu 19 February 2026 at 9:31 pm GMT+9 3 min read

Donald Trump’s administration has been critical of Britain’s online safety laws - Evan Vucci/AP

Donald Trump’s administration is launching a website that could let British and European internet users bypass online safety laws, escalating a transatlantic row over censorship.

The US state department has launched freedom.gov, which will reportedly allow people overseas to access content banned by their own governments.

The move threatens to open a new rift between Britain and the US over free speech, which the White House claims is being suppressed in the UK.

Several US sites have already restricted services in Britain in response to the online laws enforced by Ofcom, the UK’s internet watchdog, with tougher online regulation cited as a key obstacle in recent trade talks with the US.

The Government has threatened to ban Elon Musk’s X following a row over sexualised photos made by its Grok bot, while Ofcom has launched investigations into other sites that could also lead to bans.

According to Reuters, the freedom.gov website could function as a virtual private network (VPN), effectively allowing web traffic to appear as if it is coming from a US internet address and thus bypassing local restrictions.

The project has reportedly been spearheaded by Sarah Rogers, Mr Trump’s free speech tsar. It was expected to be unveiled at the Munich Security Conference last week, but was delayed.

On Thursday morning, the website was active with a placeholder message that said “freedom is coming”, and an animated image of Paul Revere, the American revolutionary who is said to have warned that “the British are coming”.

The website currently has a placeholder message saying ‘freedom is coming’

The site also says: “Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”

Digital rules in the UK and Europe impose stricter restrictions on social networks and search engines to combat harmful or illegal content.

The Trump administration has been a fierce critic of the laws. Ms Rogers has called them “tyrannical and absurd” and discussed funding groups opposed to them.

When asked about the website, the US state department told Reuters: “Digital freedom is a priority for the state department, however, and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship-circumvention ‌technologies like VPNs.”

Using a VPN to get around online safety checks is not illegal in Britain, although sites must not tell people to use them to circumvent the controls.

The team developing the site believed to include Edward Coristine, a leading figure in Mr Musk’s short-lived “Doge” initiative to cut costs, who is nicknamed “Big Balls”.

Mr Coristine posted the website address on social media on Thursday with a message saying “FREEDOM IS COMING”.

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Sarah Rogers, Donald Trump’s free speech tsar, has spearheaded the project - Dermot Tatlow

Ofcom has not yet banned any websites in Britain.

However, it has imposed “business disruption measures” on some sites, such as the anonymous posting board 4chan, which could lead to internet providers blocking them.

In EU countries such as Germany, governments routinely demand that social media sites take down content deemed to be hate speech or terrorist material.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology was contacted for comment.

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