Britain's Online Speech Crackdown: Arrested Over Memes That Cause "Anxiety"
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2026/10/15/britains_online_speech_crackdown_arrested_over_memes_causing_anxiety.html

"Full Measure" host Sharyl Attkisson looks at the UK's Online Safety Act, passed in 2023, which has unleashed what many consider disturbing policing of online speech.

FULL MEASURE: It's a focal point of national discussion: online hate, misinformation, and what constitutes each. While many Americans still consider the First Amendment near-absolute for free speech, Britain has taken a starkly different approach. Its Online Safety Act, passed in 2023, was billed as protection for kids. But it's unleashed what many consider disturbing policing of online speech. And it comes with a warning for us. A caution, some viewers may find this content graphic.

Surveillance footage shows a killer arriving at a dance studio in Southport, England where he stabbed to death three little girls, and injured 12 others, slashing one six-year-old 122 times and trying to cut off her head.

The murderer, British-born Axel Rudakubana, the son of Rwandans who entered the UK illegally and were granted asylum. Tensions surrounding immigration and violence were already high the stabbings prompted riots.

Jamie Michael, a former Royal Marine and father of two young daughters, took to Facebook with a call to action.

SHARYL ATTKISON: What did you post that got you in trouble?

JAMIE MICHAEL: I posted a 12-minute video asking, calling on the community to come together and have a meeting so that we can discuss safety measures for the schools and parks.

Jamie Michael social media post (July 31, 2024): Wise up people, wise up. We are under attack. I told you this was going to happen three months ago, okay.

SHARYL ATTKISON: Police soon showed up at his workplace in Wales- and arrested him.

Police officer (Aug. 9, 2024): The time is 12:55 and I'm arresting you on suspicion of indecent racial hatred.

JAMIE MICHAEL: I was filming for my own safety and for my own evidence and they just quickly said that I had been posting stuff on Facebook that could be indecent racial hatred they actually said that I'd had terrorist intentions, that's what was on the police report.

SHARYL ATTKISON: While he was in jail, Michael says, officials altered a transcript of his Facebook video-to make it look like he'd admitted to starting a riot. Yet he'd said no such thing.

JAMIE MICHAEL: So I put my hand up in the court to say, you know, 'things are wrong,' wanted to say that 'that's wrong and this is wrong,' and the judge literally shouted me down, said, 'Sit down.' He said, 'This isn't a place for you to speak.' And I was like, 'Wow.'

SHARYL ATTKISON: Eventually, a civil liberties group took up Michael's defense. A jury found him not guilty.

TalkTVUK video (Feb. 8, 2025): And ironically, it took a jury last week just 17 minutes to acquit him of any criminal offense. And we need to have a serious look at the laws that govern free speech in this country.

SHARYL ATTKISON: After jail time and months of anguish, Michael says he's still dealing with a destroyed reputation.

JAMIE MICHAEL: So it's crappy. It's crap what they're doing to people and it wasn't just me. They jailed hundreds at the time for nothing.

SHARYL ATTKISON: Businesswoman Bernie Spofforth's saga also began after the Southport stabbings.

BERNIE SPOFFORTH: I was taken to the police station and held for 36 hours like a terrorist. Held for 36 hours.

SHARYL ATTKISON: She shared the identity of a supposed suspect circulating online: asylum seeker Ali Al-Shakati. She didn't know it, but someone had made up the name. Days later, police came for her, too.

What were they trying to prove?

BERNIE SPOFFORTH: Malicious communications and making up communications in a racist way.

SHARYL ATTKISON: They thought you fabricated the suspect's name?