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Graham Linehan Cleared After Heathrow Arrest as CPS Drops Case After Free Speech Controversy

The charges may be dropped but the arrest leaves behind a chilling portrait of a country increasingly turning against free speech.

Graham Linehan, the Irish writer best known for Father Ted and The IT Crowd , says police have now confirmed he will face no further action following his controversial arrest at Heathrow Airport last month. He was accused of using social media to incite violence, a claim now dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Linehans arrest became a flashpoint in a growing concern over the decline of free speech in modern Britain. The image of an airport surrounded by armed officers confronting a comedy writer for tweets struck many as absurd, even dystopian.

He credited the Free Speech Union for its support and vowed to hold the police accountable for what is only the latest attempt to silence and suppress gender critical voices on behalf of dangerous and disturbed men

Ofcom has explained:

Ofcom has determined that 4chan has breached its duty under section 102(8)(a) of the Act to comply with a statutory request for information, on two separate occasions.

We are imposing a fixed penalty of £20,000 on 4chan in respect of both breaches. This penalty was set having regard to our Penalty Guidelines.

In addition, 4chan is now required to take immediate steps to comply with section 102(8)(a) by providing the following:

a copy of the written record of its illegal content risk assessment(s) in respect of 4chan.org as required by the first statutory information request; and information specified in the second statutory information request relating to its qualifying worldwide revenue ('QWR').

Should 4chan fail to comply, a daily rate penalty of £100 per day will be imposed starting from the day after the date of the Confirmation Decision for either 60 days or until 4chan provides Ofcom with the information outlined above (whichever is sooner).

See article from x.com

Preston Byrne is defending 4Chan in US law nad has a few interesting reveals into how Ofcom intend to pursue its censorship citing sovereign imunity.

 

Porn websites too

Ofcom has announced that it will take the next steps in the pursuit of porn website provider AVS Limited.

This in relation to the adult sites www.pornzog.com, www.txxx.com, www.txxx.tube, www.upornia.com, www.hdzog.com, www.hdzog.tube, www.thegay.com, www.thegay.tube, www.ooxxx.com, www.hotmovs.com, www.hclips.com, www.vjav.com, www.pornl.com, www.voyeurhit.com, www.manysex.com, www.tubepornclassic.com, www.shemalez.com and www.shemalez.tube .

Ofcom explains

Following an investigation, Ofcom has provisionally determined that there are reasonable grounds to believe AVS Group Ltd has failed, and is failing, to comply with section 12 of the Online Safety Act ('the Act'). Section 12 imposes a duty on providers of services that fall under Part 3 of the Act, and allow pornographic content, to ensure that children are prevented from encountering pornographic content through the use of highly effective age assurance.

Ofcom therefore issued a provisional notice of contravention to AVS Group Ltd on 10 October 2025 under section 130 of the Act. The notice also sets out our provisional view that AVS Group Ltd has infringed its duties under section 102(8) of the Act by failing to respond to a statutory request for information issued as part of the investigation.

Similarly Ofcom is haranging websites from Youngtek Solutions Ltd The websites under consideration are www.imagefap.com, www.empflix.com www.moviefap.com, www.pornrepublic.com and www.TNAflix.com.

The image-hosting platform Imgur.com has blocked people in the UK from accessing its content. Imgur is used by millions to make and share images such as memes across the web, particularly on Reddit and in online forums.

UK users trying to access Imgur are now met with an error message saying content is not available in your region . Also Imgur content shared on, or embedded in, other websites is also no longer showing.

The website seems to be responding to censorship via the data protection censor, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) rather than the more usual UK internet censor Ofcom. A document published by the ICO alongside the launch of its investigation stated that Imgur did not ask visitors to declare their age when setting up an account.

ICO said in a statement:

We are aware of reports that the social media platform Imgur is currently not available in the UK. Imgur's decision to restrict access in the UK is a commercial decision taken by the company.

Earlier this year, as part of an update on our Children's code strategy, we announced an investigation into MediaLab AI Inc (MediaLab). The investigation relates to how MediaLab's Imgur social media platform uses children's information and its approach to age assurance.

Tim Capel, ICO Interim Executive Director - Regulatory Supervision, said:

We reached our provisional findings on this investigation, and we issued a notice of intent to impose a monetary penalty on MediaLab on 10 September 2025.

Our findings are provisional and the ICO will carefully consider any representations from MediaLab before taking a final decision whether to issue a monetary penalty.

We have been clear that exiting the UK does not allow an organisation to avoid responsibility for any prior infringement of data protection law, and our investigation remains ongoing.

The Financial Times reports that the U.K. is once again demanding that Apple create a backdoor into its encrypted backup services. The only change since the last time they demanded this is that the order is allegedly limited to only apply to British users. That doesnt make it any better.

The demand uses a power called a 'Technical Capability Notice' (TCN) in the U.K.s Investigatory Powers Act. At the time of its signing we noted this law would likely be used to demand Apple spy on its users.

After the U.K. government first issued the TCN in January, Apple was forced to either create a backdoor or block its Advanced Data Protection feature--which turns on end-to-end encryption for iCloud--for all U.K. users. The company decided to remove the feature in the U.K. instead of creating the backdoor.

The initial order from January targeted the data of all Apple users. In August, the US claimed the U.K. withdrew the demand , but Apple did not re-enable Advanced Data Protection. The new order provides insight into why: the U.K. was just rewriting it to only apply to British users.

This is still an unsettling overreach that makes U.K. users less safe and less free. As weve said time and time again , any backdoor built for the government puts everyone at greater risk of hacking, identity theft, and fraud. It sets a dangerous precedent to demand similar data from other companies, and provides a runway for other authoritarian governments to issue comparable orders. The news of continued server-side access to users' data comes just days after the UK government announced an intrusive mandatory digital ID scheme , framed as a measure against illegal migration.

A tribunal hearing was initially set to take place in January 2026 , though its currently unclear if that will proceed or if the new order changes the legal process. Apple must continue to refuse these types of backdoors. Breaking end-to-end encryption for one country breaks it for everyone. These repeated attempts to weaken encryption violates fundamental human rights and destroys our right to private spaces.