By Reuters Fact Check
Publication Date: 2025-12-30 11:59:00
Google raised free speech concerns when it formally replied to online safety proposals by Britain’s independent media regulator, but it did not say the company received specific takedown requests, nor that the UK risked “authoritarian irrelevance”, as has been claimed in online posts and a news article, respectively.
Posts on Facebook, opens new tab, Instagram, opens new tab, X, opens new tab, and TikTok, opens new tab said on December 21-22: “BREAKING: Google has exposed that they received a series of requests from the OFCOM regulator to censor content that they considered ‘hate speech’.
“Google disagrees it’s hate speech, and has declared The Labour Party is a threat to free speech.”
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One post included a link to an article, opens new tab by the UK edition of the International Business Times which did not repeat the social media claim but did quote Google as saying Britain risked “authoritarian irrelevance” on its path to enforce the latest phase of…