In a dystopian threat to freedom of speech, the British government has announced the launch of a digital identification in response to illegal immigration.
The U.K. government is launching a new digital ID, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed would be not be mandatory for individuals, yet it will be “mandatory as a means of proving your right to work.” Reform U.K. Member of Parliament Nigel Farage was having none of it, emphasizing the threat such an approach could pose to people’s freedom, including their actions, movement and spending. Farage also reminded viewers that the pandemic was an example of how the government would overreach if given the opportunity again.
“For all the reasons that Farage said, digital ID is bad, but worst of all — and not explicitly mentioned — is how it can and would be used to chill and suppress free speech,” warned MRC Free Speech America Director Michael Morris. “Free speech is the backbone of democratic societies, and we all saw how government and Big Tech colluded to silence dissent during the pandemic. It looks like it’s about to happen again in the U.K., and it could happen here in America, too, if we’re not careful.”
Say NO to a UK Digital ID! pic.twitter.com/c63mHIsluo
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) September 25, 2025
Farage, in an X video Thursday, rejected the argument that this will supposedly slow illegal immigration in England, which has been heretofore encouraged by the leftist government. “Well, think about it. Germany has ID cards, strict ID and checks. It’s made no difference at all in Germany, and nor will it here,” he said.
He then described digital ID as a form of tyrannical control over the British people. “All that digital ID will be is a means of controlling the population, of telling us what we can and can’t do and fining the innocent,” he stated. “And didn’t we see it all when we had the pandemic, when you had to have vaccine ID to travel, to do various things? Did that stop the COVID pandemic’s … spreading? Did it help? All it did was put cost and inconvenience on everybody else. I also worry about massive databanks being held by the government, being hacked by foreign governments, by private companies, by criminals. I do not see a single benefit to the government having digital ID other than them controlling what we do, what we spend, and where we go.”
Tyrannical overreach appears to be par for the course in the U.K. as of late. The UK government has been arresting up to 30 people every day for exercising free speech, including for violations as small as re-posts and satirical cartoons, according to an August New York Post article. Multiple Big Tech companies have complied with the Orwellian Online Safety Act that harshly regulates so-called “hateful” content and other vague and arbitrary categories.
Not all tech companies have submitted tamely. At the start of September, X criticized the U.K. government for having imprisoned Lucy Connolly over a deleted post about a deadly attack. X Global Government Affairs posted Aug. 26, “Lucy Connolly has been released from prison after serving 10 months of an unjust 31-month sentence for a single deleted post. The UK government's crackdown on free speech remains a concern, but it’s great to see Lucy reunite with her family. X will continue to be steadfast in our support of users’ right to freedom of speech on the platform.”
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
