The Global Fight for Free Speech Starts With a Hamster

Preston Byrne, Tech & Free Speech Lawyer at Byrne & Storm, P.C., shares how a small American imageboard became the first test case for whether foreign governments can legally force American companies to comply with their censorship laws on American soil. He breaks down why the UK's Online Safety Act can't actually be enforced against US companies with no British presence; how a picture of an AI-generated hamster became a more effective legal strategy than a hundred-page brief; and what the proposed GRANITE Act would do to permanently close the loophole foreign regulators have been exploiting.

Key Takeaways:

• Why the UK's Online Safety Act can't legally be enforced against American companies

• What the GRANITE Act would do what current First Amendment protections can't

• How 98% of companies comply with foreign censorship demands they have no legal obligation to follow

• Why responding to Ofcom with a hamster worked better than a formal legal letter

Guest Bio: Preston Bryne is a technology lawyer with Byrne & Storm, P.C., and a Senior Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute in London. Preston is the architect of the GRANITE Act and the Adam Smith Institute's Freedom of Speech Bill, an effort to launch a coordinated, transatlantic legislative response to foreign censorship enforcement. He was appointed to the Legal Advisory Council of the UK's Free Speech Union in 2025.

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