Amid escalating protests over the influx of foreigners entering the United Kingdom illegally, British police have formed a new unit to monitor social media for signs of anti-migrant sentiment and prevent disorder, alarming free speech advocates who accuse the Labour Party of slipping into authoritarianism. 

The move to create the National Internet Intelligence Investigations Team over the weekend comes as Britons stage nationwide protests outside hotels being used to house asylum seekers. Demonstrations at Norwich, Leeds, Bournemouth, Epping, and other cities have resulted in police arresting dozens of protesters for throwing smoke bombs and projectiles and injuring law enforcement officers. 

The internet investigations team is being housed within the National Police Coordination Center to “exploit internet intelligence to help local forces manage public safety threats effectively,” Britain’s policing and crimes minister, Diana Johnson, told the Telegraph. “This team will provide a national capability to monitor social media intelligence and advise on its use to inform local operational decision-making.”

The initiative has sparked significant backlash among critics who argue the government is trying to police public opinion, compromise free speech, and move England toward a surveillance state.

“Labour has stopped pretending to fix Britain and started trying to mute it. They’re setting up a central team to monitor what you post, what you share, what you think, because deep down they know the public don’t buy what they’re selling,” the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, said, according to the Standard.

Calling it an Orwellian dystopia, leaders from Reform UK have vowed to oppose it. 

“Any student of history will know that the way countries slip into this sort of authoritarian regime is through legislation that cloaks tyranny through the warm fuzz of safety and security and hopes nobody reads the small print. Well we have read the small print. We think this is the greatest assault on free speech in our lifetimes,” the party’s head of U.K. DOGE, Zia Yusuf, said Monday while standing against a backdrop that read, “Britain is Lawless.”

Meeting with President Trump in Scotland on Monday, Prime Minister Starmer defended Britain’s record on speech. “We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time and we’re proud about that.”  

Mr. Starmer also spoke in defense of other aspects of the law enacted over the weekend establishing the internet investigations units. The Online Safety Act gives the secretary of state the authority to rewrite rules on what speech social media companies must censor, and threatens media executives with penalties of jail time and fines as high as 10 percent of global revenue. 

Mr. Yusuf said the legislation creates “a perverse set of incentives” that causes executives to be “overzealous on their censorship” in an attempt to protect shareholder values.

On Saturday, social media companies faced accusations of restricting access to content related to the protests because of the law, which Mr. Starmer said protects users, particularly minors, from harmful material. Posts containing protest footage were reportedly labeled or restricted due to violations of local regulations.

“We’re not censoring anyone. We’ve got some measures which are there to protect children, in particular, from sites like suicide sites,” Mr. Starmer said.

In his sitdown with Mr. Trump, Mr. Starmer acknowledged that Britain must curb illegal immigration. An investigation by the Daily Mail found that at least 312 asylum seekers have been charged with 708 alleged criminal offenses in the past three years — including rape and sexual assault.

“In the United Kingdom, it is a real cause for concern, and that’s why we must bear down on it in all its aspects,” he said. “When people have arrived in this country and have got no right to be here, then we should be removing them to their own country.”