British outlet “spiked” produced a documentary focused on rising censorship in the U.K. “Think Before You Post” explains how the U.K. has become a country where “at least 30 people a day are now arrested in England and Wales for social-media posts.” Ironically, the documentary is being censored.
The British outlet reported that the censorship is likely a result of a 2023 U.K. law that included age verification rules, which have recently taken effect. When spiked posted the documentary on its X account, the post was censored, requiring users to log into an age-verified account in order to view it.
The message that X shows to users not logged into an age-verified account claims that the documentary contains “Age-restricted adult content,” further explaining that “[t]his content might not be appropriate for people under 18 years old. To view this media, you’ll need to log in to X.” spiked noted that the documentary “has zero age-inappropriate content in it,” claiming that filmmakers “even bleeped interviewee Allison Pearson’s judiciously used f-bomb just to be on the safe side. But no dice.”
Age restrictions place significant limitations on social media content. Such measures require users to sign in before viewing the content, which also prevents the content from being embedded on external websites. Such posts are also not receiving the algorithmic boost that unrestricted posts enjoy. In short, age restricting this documentary limits its reach, thus ensuring fewer people learn about the U.K.’s deplorable censorship practices.
The U.K. has cracked down hard on speech and government criticism online. In recent years, the U.K. government has threatened Americans, levied fines against platforms that do not cooperate with government censorship demands and arrested citizens of other countries over content they post on American social media platforms. In July 2025, the U.K. government even launched a National Internet Intelligence Investigations team specifically to search for anyone violating its speech standards.
President Trump called out such laws that discriminate against American companies and citizens, stating that he will punish any country that creates a law that is “designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology.”
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