Reform UK pledges to repeal Online Safety Act, despite having no plan to safeguard children online

Reform UK has vowed to repeal the Online Safety Act just one week after it came into force, branding the new legislation “a borderline dystopian” overreach — while admitting it has no current plan to protect children online.

At a press conference in Westminster that was supposed to focus on crime, Nigel Farage and senior aide Zia Yusuf turned their fire on the Online Safety Act, claiming it would empower censorship and stifle free speech.

“This legislation plunges the country into a borderline dystopian state,” Yusuf said, describing the Act’s aims as veiled authoritarianism. “Any student of history will know that the way countries slip into tyranny is through legislation that cloaks control in the warm fuzz of safety and hopes nobody reads the small print.”

Under the new law, Ofcom is granted regulatory powers to fine social media platforms for failing to prevent the spread of harmful content — including material related to suicide, self-harm, and misinformation. But Yusuf alleged the powers would “force companies to censor anti-government speech” and even cited X, the Elon Musk-owned platform, as vulnerable to regulation.

The Act has been praised by campaigners for aiming to shield children from dangerous content, including by enforcing age verification on adult sites and clamping down on suicide-related posts. But Yusuf dismissed its technical effectiveness outright, stating that children could “simply use VPN proxy servers” to bypass restrictions.

When pressed on what Reform would do instead to protect children, Farage admitted they did not yet have an answer.

“Can I stand here and say we have a perfect solution right now? No,” he told reporters. “Can I say we have access to some of the best tech brains, not just in Britain but the world? Yes.”

Despite the lack of a concrete plan, both Farage and Yusuf insisted the Act would be scrapped under a Reform government, labelling it “massive overreach”.

The press conference also took a darker turn as Farage escalated his rhetoric on migration, drawing unsubstantiated links between asylum seekers and sexual violence in the UK. Without offering any data, he claimed that the rise in rapes and sexual assaults was linked to immigration from countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Eritrea.

“There’s an alarming parallel between the increase in reported rapes and the wholly irresponsible immigration policies pursued by Labour and the Conservatives,” he said. “We want the right types of people from different countries coming to Britain — not the wrong types.”

Farage alleged that in some countries “women aren’t even second-class citizens”, and warned that Reform would soon highlight what he claimed to be a “direct link” between people from certain backgrounds and rising sexual violence. Again, he provided no evidence.

The backlash was swift. Andy Burrows, CEO of the Molly Rose Foundation, condemned Reform’s Online Safety stance as both dangerous and out of step with the public.

“Scrapping the Online Safety Act would be a retrograde move that puts children at greater risk,” he said. “Polling shows this legislation is popular with voters. It’s a vital safeguard.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer, speaking before a meeting with Donald Trump in Scotland, defended the law. “The Act is not censoring anyone — it’s about protecting children, particularly from content about suicide,” he said. “Britain has a long history of free speech. We’re very proud of that and will always protect it.”

What began as a press event about policing quickly veered into ideological territory — one where child safety, tech regulation, and migration rhetoric collided in what many saw as a calculated and chaotic campaign pitch from Reform UK.