# Why This Exists

The United Kingdom has quietly become one of the most aggressive surveilleurs of online speech in the democratic world. Speakers' Corner Online was built as a response — a place where residents can talk freely, privately, and without fear, using infrastructure that cannot be monitored or compelled to hand over your conversations.

65,000+
arrests in the UK for social media posts since 2017

British police forces have made over 65,000 arrests for online speech in less than a decade — averaging more than 20 arrests every single day. Offences range from "grossly offensive" messages under the Communications Act to alleged "stirring up" of hatred, applied increasingly broadly and with little consistency.

Source: archived report ↗
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## The Online Safety Act

The Online Safety Act 2023 granted Ofcom sweeping powers to demand that platforms scan private messages for illegal content — a power that, by technical necessity, requires breaking end-to-end encryption. Put simply: if a platform must be able to read your messages to check them, your messages are no longer private.

The Act also imposes broad "duty of care" obligations that incentivise platforms to over-censor legal speech to avoid regulatory liability. The practical result is that mainstream platforms increasingly remove or restrict content that is perfectly lawful — not because it breaks any law, but because it is cheaper than arguing with a regulator.

Signal, WhatsApp and others have threatened to leave the UK market rather than comply with backdoor requirements. SimpleX's architecture makes compliance technically impossible — there is no central server holding your keys and no company that can be served a disclosure order for your messages.
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## Digital Identity & the Coming Infrastructure

The UK government is rolling out a voluntary Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework that creates the infrastructure for verified digital IDs accepted across government and private services. "Voluntary" has a habit of becoming mandatory once the infrastructure exists — access to banking, benefits, travel and eventually online platforms may increasingly depend on presenting a verified digital identity.

Combined with age-verification mandates in the Online Safety Act, the direction of travel is clear: anonymous online participation is being engineered out of existence. Once every account is tied to a real identity, the chilling effect on speech becomes total — people will self-censor on anything that could attract official attention.

SimpleX requires no phone number, no email address, and no government ID. Your identity on this network is a cryptographic key that exists only on your device. There is nothing to subpoena and no account to suspend.
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## Why SimpleX

Most "private" messaging apps still require a phone number — which ties every account to a real identity via your mobile carrier. SimpleX was designed from the ground up to have no user identifiers at all. Each conversation uses a fresh pair of message queues; even the platform operator cannot link two conversations to the same person.

- No phone number or email required — connect via a QR code or link.
- No central user database — there is nothing to leak, sell, or hand to police.
- End-to-end encrypted — messages are decrypted only on your device.
- Open source — the code can be audited by anyone.
- Self-hostable — you can run your own relay servers and remain fully independent.

Download the SimpleX app →

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## Community Rules

We defend the right to hold and express unpopular opinions. The narrow set of rules below are about direct harm — not offence, not controversy, not dissent.

- No illegal content Content that is illegal in the UK — CSAM, credible incitement to imminent violence, etc. — will result in immediate removal and referral to authorities.
- No targeted harassment campaigns Groups whose sole purpose is to coordinate abuse toward a specific individual are not permitted.
- No doxing Publishing someone's private personal information (home address, workplace, phone number) without consent is not allowed.
- Label adult content Communities containing explicit material must say so clearly in their description.
- Honest descriptions Your group's name and description must accurately represent what it is. No spam, no bait-and-switch.

Controversial, offensive, politically extreme, or unpopular speech is explicitly permitted here. The entire point of this platform is that you do not need our approval to speak — only your own conscience.
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## Reporting & Joining

To report a listed community that breaches the rules above, connect to the directory bot via the QR code on the main page and send a brief message with the community name and the nature of the breach. Reports are reviewed manually.

To submit your own group or channel, join the directory bot and follow the prompts. Listing is free.