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An American cancer patient living in the UK accused British cops of questioning her over an allegedly “threatening” message she’d posted on Facebook as part of the UK’s crackdown on online speech.
Shocking video shows Deborah Anderson, a President Trump-supporting mom-of-two, being confronted by a police officer in her home in Slough, England over something she wrote on Facebook.
In the clip, which was filmed in June but shared by the pressure group the Free Speech Union (FSU) Wednesday, the officer tells Anderson that her “threatening” Facebook post was reported to police.
“You can come in, but you’d better have a damn good reason for being here,” Anderson tells the cop before adding, “I’m a member of the Free Speech Union and I’m an American citizen … I’ll have Elon Musk on you so quickly your feet won’t touch [the floor].”
The Online Safety Act went into effect earlier this year in the UK — a law ostensibly meant to target harmful content online, including posts that are violent or pornographic. But critics say it’s enabled police to stifle free speech and even arrest everyday people for simply retweeting.
In Anderson’s case, the officer from the Thames Valley Police department didn’t tell her the contents of her allegedly offensive post — just that it had “upset someone.”
“You’re here because somebody got upset? Is it against the law? Am I being arrested?” Anderson asked, to which the officer replied that she was not under arrest but asked her to apologize.
“I’m not apologizing to anybody, I can tell you that,” Anderson said, to which the officer warned her that she would have to be taken in for an interview.
“Are there no houses that have been [burglarized] recently? No rapes, no murders … why aren’t you investigating those?” she asked the officer.
“I’m a cancer patient. You can see that because I’m bald … I’m a woman living on my own, who has never broken a law in her life,” she said.
Thames Valley Police did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Earlier, a spokesperson for the force said in a statement, “In June, we received a report from a person who felt threatened by comments directed at them online. Following engagement with both parties, no arrests were made, and no further action was taken.
“While people are entitled to express their views, it is the police’s duty to respond to allegations of threatening language and references to violence.”
Thames Valley Police’s jurisdiction includes Windsor Castle, where Trump and first lady Melania Trump have spent the past two days as guests of King Charles.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance have said freedom of expression is under attack in Britain.
“Trump and Vance were absolutely right. There should be no doubt that people in Britain are being cautioned, arrested and imprisoned simply for exercising their freedom of speech,” Chairman of London-based think tank The Bow Group, Ben Harris-Quinney, told The Post.
“Famous comedian Graham Linehan who moved to the US to escape free speech restriction was later arrested by armed police on returning to the UK over tweets opposing trans ideology. Many felt the case was dropped so quickly due to Starmer’s fear of reprisals from the US with the state visit upcoming.
“The biggest voice championing free speech in the UK is currently Donald Trump’s,” Harris-Quinney added.
“The free speech comments from the White House have caused great concern in the UK,” Maxwell Marlow, Director of Public Affairs at the London-based Adam Smith Institute told The Post.
“Whilst officials and the government do not believe that there is a free speech crisis in the UK — despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary — recent legislation such as the dreadful Online Safety Act have put ministers on the back foot.
“It is important for the American government, if they wish to reinforce free speech for the British people, to maintain the pressure on the British government to repeal the impositions on our liberties,” he added.
The FSU called the June incident “chilling” in its post about the video.
“What was Deborah’s supposed crime? The policeman didn’t tell her. Was it her passionate support of President Trump and the MAGA movement on her Facebook and X pages?” the post read, before saying that police had dropped Anderson’s case after the FSU took it up.
“The FSU took on her case and, as a result, the police have now dropped their investigation. But they still haven’t told Deborah which of her posts got her into trouble, claiming they’ve accidentally deleted the record of the complaint,” the post continued.
“Thames Valley Police are responsible for guarding President Trump this week. What would he make of the fact that those same officers are visiting the homes of his supporters – including US citizens – and threatening them with arrest,” the post concluded.
