House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) invited the Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage to a hearing on Capitol Hill next month to discuss overseas technology laws.
The hearing, titled “Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation,” is scheduled to take place Sept. 3.
The committee said the hearing will “highlight how European online censorship laws-specifically the United Kingdom’s (UK) Online Safety Act (OSA) and the European Union’s (EU) Digital Services Act (DSA)-threaten Americans’ right to speak freely online in the United States.”
The hearing will also “explain how the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC) and the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) target American companies and hurt innovation.”
The hearing comes after President Trump this week threatened to slap additional tariffs on nations that do not remove their digital taxes, contending they are detrimental to U.S. tech products and companies.
“As the President of the United States, I will stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies. Digital Taxes, Digital Services Legislation, and Digital Markets Regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology,” the president posted on social media Monday night.
The hearing will focus on the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, which was passed in 2023 to protect users, including children, from harmful content.
The legislation’s age verification provisions went into effect last month, limiting various content such as hate speech, pornography, videos depicting violence and others. Users in the U.K. were then required to submit their photos and IDs to show they are of age to consume the content.
Farage, a British right-wing populist, has been critical of the Online Safety Act, saying in July the act was already altering consumers’ feeds.
“Millions of people have noticed what they’re getting on their feeds is different to what it was just last week. It begins to look as though state suppression of genuine free speech may be upon us already,” Farage said.
Jordan also invited former European Commissioner Thierry Breton to attend next week’s hearing.
