Goya to Gaza: The Online Safety Act’s First Victims Reveal Its True Purpose

In Case You Forgot: The Online Safety Act Is a Censorship Tool

Gaza, Ukraine, and even parliamentary debate are censored. Welcome to Britain’s ‘safe’ internet.

Remember our warning that the government’s so-called Online Safety Act would be used not to protect children, but to silence dissent, suppress news, and curtail free expression?

Well, here it is.

In less than a week, Social media platforms are already blocking legitimate public interest content, posts about the genocide in Gaza and war in Ukraine, political speeches, and even classic artwork, under the guise of compliance with the UK’s new law.

BBC Verify has revealed that platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit are restricting access to a wide range of content for users who haven’t passed age verification checks. Among the blocked material:

• A non-graphic video showing a man searching for family members in the rubble of Gaza.
• Footage of a drone strike in Ukraine with no injuries shown.
• A parliamentary speech about grooming gangs, banned on social media but freely available on Parliament’s official stream.
• A 19th-century painting by Francisco Goya, censored for being too “disturbing”.

All because users hadn’t proved their age.

Let that sink in: public debate, history, and war reporting, censored behind an age gate.

Among the restricted content identified by BBC Verify was a video post on X which showed a man in Gaza looking for the dead bodies of his family buried among the rubble of destroyed buildings. The post was restricted despite not showing any graphic imagery or bodies at any point in the clip. X subsequently removed the warning after being approached by BBC Verify.

When users who had not verified their age attempted to access the post, they were met with a message reading: “Due to local laws, we are temporarily restricting access to this content until X estimates your age.”

This is what happens when laws are written not to protect the public, but to appease lobbyists, corporate interests, and a political class terrified of open dialogue.

The Online Safety Act came into force last week, giving Ofcom the power to fine platforms up to £18 million or 10% of global revenue if they don’t remove content deemed harmful to under-18s, ranging from porn to posts on self-harm. But what we’re seeing is a blunt overreach, where even verified, legitimate news is swept up.

The law was sold as a shield for children. But now it’s being used as a bludgeon against free speech.

Another post restricted on X shared an image of Francisco de Goya’s 19th-century painting entitled Saturn Devouring His Son. The striking work depicts the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus – known as Saturn by the Romans – eating one of his children in fear of a prophesy that one would overthrow him and has been described as depicting “utter male fury”.

The examples gathered by BBC Verify are largely focussed on X and Reddit, as they clearly flag age-restricted content. Meta has a different system whereby ‘teen’ profiles are a different type of account with parental control – making it harder for us to identify which content is age-restricted.

It is unclear exactly how many posts commenting on debates of public interest are being restricted. X and Reddit did not respond to a request for comment.

Among the Reddit communities which have been restricted is one called R/UkraineConflict, a message board with 48,000 members that frequently posts footage of the war. Similar restrictions, which urge users to “log in to confirm your age”, have been imposed on several pages which discuss the Israel-Gaza war and communities which focus on healthcare.

Perhaps most revealing is the restriction placed on MP Katie Lam’s parliamentary speech about grooming gang atrocities. Here we witness censorship’s true function: not protecting children from harmful content but protecting comfortable illusions from disturbing facts. Lam’s graphic but necessary description of systematic child rape, available without restriction on Parliament’s official website, becomes prohibited content when shared on social media. As Lam herself observed with devastating clarity: “The British state won’t protect children from mass gang rape. But it will ‘protect’ adults from hearing about it.”

🚨 #BBCVerify reports MP Katie Lam’s speech on grooming gangs is now restricted on X under the Online Safety Act. From Gaza to Ukraine to UK child abuse, the govt is censoring what it doesn’t want you to see. Watch it here before it’s blocked again. #freeSpeechUK pic.twitter.com/bEg9hg8yC1

— Labour Heartlands (@Labourheartland) August 1, 2025

This represents more than bureaucratic overreach, it constitutes the weaponisation of child welfare rhetoric to achieve political censorship that no democratic government could justify through honest means. By claiming to shield minors from harm, the state has created mechanisms to shield itself from accountability, transforming legitimate concerns about online child safety into tools for suppressing democratic debate.

Even experts are sounding the alarm. Oxford professor Sandra Wachter warned that the Act is “not supposed to be used to suppress facts of public interest, even if uncomfortable.” But that’s exactly what’s happening.

The truth is this: tech companies are terrified of UK regulators, and rather than risk billion-pound fines, they are blanket-banning content, erring on the side of caution at the expense of civil liberties.

X and Reddit have both failed to comment, but one thing is clear, we now live in a system where viewing the world as it is, is considered a threat.

Meanwhile, the government claims it’s up to the platforms to decide how to comply. But that’s just buck-passing. When you hand corporations the job of censoring speech, they’ll do it clumsily, without nuance, and without accountability, especially after cutting back their moderation teams for profit.

The result? A sterilised internet where political debate is muted, history is hidden, and truth becomes a casualty of regulation.

This was never just about protecting children. It’s about controlling narratives, especially the ones that make governments uncomfortable.

And if you’re thinking, “Well, I’m an adult, this doesn’t affect me”, think again. BBC Verify found that up to 59% of Reddit and 37% of X users access content without logging in, meaning many adults will get the same censored experience as teenagers.

So here we are:
A law that promised safety, now blocking war coverage, political speech, and art.

Welcome to Britain’s brave new internet, scrubbed clean of anything that matters.