Trump to Confront Starmer Over UK Free Speech Laws During State Visit

Todayville

Published

9 mins ago

2 minute read

Trump’s tour is reportedly set to double as a rebuke of Britain’s approach to online expression.

President Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain this week is shaping up to be less about ceremonial pageantry and more about a bitter dispute over censorship and freedom of speech.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer had hoped to use the meeting at Chequers to press for relief from American steel tariffs and to focus on Ukraine and Gaza, but Washington insiders say Trump intends to put Britain’s clampdowns on speech at the very top of the agenda.

The president will land on Tuesday evening. He will attend the usual state functions, including a carriage procession at Windsor, a banquet hosted by King Charles, and a wreath-laying at the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II before heading to Chequers on Thursday for what now promises to be a fraught meeting.

The free speech battle is not new. According to The Independent, Trump previously “berated Keir Starmer over free speech” during private talks at his Turnberry resort in the summer, according to a source close to the president.

That same source added, “There is absolutely no doubt that free speech is going to be one of, if not the top issue, when the two hold talks.”

Fueling the row are recent cases that have drawn international attention: Lucy Connolly’s imprisonment over a tweet, the armed police arrest of comedy writer Graham Linehan at Heathrow, and the UK’s sweeping Online Safety Act.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has already carried the argument to Congress, urging Washington to punish Britain for criminalizing online speech.

Related Topics:#ReclaimTheNet CindyHarper DonaldTrumpUKCensorship TrumpConfrontsStarmer UKCensorship UKFreedomOfExpression UKFreeSpeechLaws

Don't Miss

UK Police Chief Hails Facial Recognition, Outlines Drone and AI Policing Plans

Todayville

Todayville is a digital media and technology company. We profile unique stories and events in our community. Register and promote your community event for free.

Follow Author

Trump to Confront Starmer Over UK Free Speech Laws During State Visit

Artificial Intelligence / 2 hours ago

UK Police Chief Hails Facial Recognition, Outlines Drone and AI Policing Plans

2025 Federal Election / 3 hours ago

Post election report indicates Canadian elections are becoming harder to secure

Artificial Intelligence

UK Police Chief Hails Facial Recognition, Outlines Drone and AI Policing Plans

Published on September 16, 2025

Todayville

By Ken Macon

Any face in the crowd can be caught in the dragnet of a digital police state.

The steady spread of facial recognition technology onto Britain’s streets is drawing alarm from those who see it as a step toward mass surveillance, even as police leaders celebrate it as a powerful new weapon against crime.

Live Facial Recognition (LFR) is a system that scans people’s faces in public spaces and compares them against watchlists.

Civil liberties groups warn it normalizes biometric monitoring of ordinary citizens, while the Metropolitan Police insist it is already producing results.

Britain’s senior police leadership is promoting these biometric and artificial intelligence systems as central to the future of policing, with commissioner Sir Mark Rowley arguing that such tools are already transforming the way the Met operates.

Speaking to the TechUK trade association, Rowley described Live Facial Recognition (LFR) as a “game-changing tool” and pointed to more than 700 arrests linked to its use so far this year.

Camera vans stationed on streets have been deployed to flag people wanted for serious crimes or those breaking license conditions.

Rowley highlighted a recent deployment at the Notting Hill Carnival, where he joined officers using LFR.

“Every officer I spoke to was energized by the potential,” he said to The Sun. According to the commissioner, the weekend brought 61 arrests, including individuals sought in cases of serious violence and offenses against women and girls.

Rowley claimed that the technology played “a critical role” in making the carnival safer.

Beyond facial recognition, Rowley spoke of expanding the Met’s reliance on drones. “From searching for missing people, to arriving quickly at serious traffic incidents, or replacing the expensive and noisy helicopter at large public events,” he said, “done well, drones will be another tool to help officers make faster, more informed decisions on the ground.”

The commissioner also promoted the V100 program, which draws on data analysis to focus resources on those considered the highest risk to women.

He said this initiative has already led to the conviction of more than 160 offenders he described as “the most prolific and predatory” in London.

Artificial Intelligence is being tested in other areas too, particularly to review CCTV footage.

Rowley noted the labour involved in manually tracing suspects through crowded areas. “Take Oxford Street, with 27 junctions—a trawl to identify a suspect’s route can take two days,” he explained.

“Now imagine telling AI to find clips of a male wearing a red baseball cap between X and Y hours, and getting results in hours. That’s game-changing.”

While the Met portrays these systems as advances in crime prevention, their deployment raises questions about surveillance creeping deeper into everyday life.

Expansions in facial recognition, drone monitoring, and algorithmic analysis are often introduced as matters of efficiency and safety, but they risk building an infrastructure of constant observation where privacy rights are gradually eroded.

Shaun Thompson’s case has already been cited by campaigners as evidence of the risks that come with rolling out facial recognition on public streets.

He was mistakenly identified by the technology, stopped, and treated as though he were a wanted suspect before the error was realized.

Incidents like this highlight the danger of false matches and the lack of safeguards around biometric surveillance.

For ordinary people, the impact is clear: even if you have done nothing wrong, you can still find yourself pulled into a system that treats you as guilty first and asks questions later.

Reclaim The Net is funded by the community.

Keep us going and get extra benefits by becoming a supporter today.

Thank you.

Crime

Trump ‘100%’ supports designating Antifa a domestic terror organization

Published on September 16, 2025

Todayville

From The Center Square

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch

President Donald Trump is “100%” on board with designating Antifa a domestic terror organization following a rise in left-wing violence.

The Center Square asked the president Monday afternoon in the Oval Office if he would designate the organization a domestic terror organization following a spate of political violence, including the assassination last week of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“I would do that 100% and others also, by the way, but Antifa, is terrible,” the president responded to The Center Square during an Oval Office event.

The president didn’t stop with Antifa; he may also said he’d consider designating other groups, but wouldn’t indicate others by name. He said he’s talked with Attorney General Pam Bondi about bringing federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges against some of these organizations and their donors.

“There are other groups, yeah, there are other groups. We have some pretty radical groups, and they got away with murder. And also, I’ve been speaking to the Attorney General about bringing RICO against some of the people that you’ve been reading about that have been putting up millions and millions of dollars for agitation,” Trump said. “These are protests. These are crimes. What they’re doing, where they’re throwing bricks at cars of the of ICE and border patrol.”

Trump made the announcement during an event to announce a crime emergency in Memphis, Tenn. Several members of his administration, including Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth, and FBI Director Kash Patel, were present.

The president briefly asked the group, specifically the attorney general, for approval of the proposal, to which she nodded in agreement.

Antifa is a left-wing political group, short for “anti-fascist,” that has taken root across the country, especially in the Pacific Northwest. It has been blamed for several violent protests, in some cases involving government buildings.