U.S. Republican Senator Ted Cruz has lamented the loss of liberty in the United Kingdom after a former police officer was convicted of a crime for merely reposting a meme mocking Islam.
The Newton Aycliffe magistrates’ court found retired police officer Stephen Gray guilty this month of violating Section 127(1)(a) of the Communications Act 2003 over a supposedly “grossly offensive” image he shared on his Facebook account.
The meme, which was flagged to the Durham Constabulary by a non-Muslim neighbour, portrayed a man wearing a turban next to a rasher of bacon with the caption: “Fun facts about Bacon! People who eat bacon have a lower chance of marrying a 9-year-old!”
While Gray acknowledged that some may have found the meme in bad taste, he said he was shocked that it would result in a criminal conviction and a £1,000 fine.
Responding to a report on the case by Breitbart London, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) remarked: “No meme is criminal. The UK has fallen.”
Cruz, a constitutional lawyer and staunch defender of freedom of speech, has been a vocal critic of the growing censorship apparatus in the United Kingdom and has warned that the British state may undermine Americans’ rights by targeting social media platforms like Elon Musk’s X.
Indeed, the Online Safety Act gives London the power to impose fines of up to 10 per cent of a social media company’s global revenue if it fails to comply with the UK’s speech restrictions. Should a firm refuse to comply, the law allows Britain to bring criminal charges against senior management and even ban the platform from the country altogether.
Internationally, the UK has become one of the global leaders in terms of citizens arrested for posts made on social media, with the Times of London estimating that over 12,000 people were arrested for ‘offensive’ online content in 2023, or around 33 people per day.
The censorship regime has become a major focus of the Trump administration in the United States, notably for Vice President JD Vance, who warned in a landmark speech at last year’s Munich Security Conference that in Britain and Europe free speech is “in retreat“.