The UK’s War on Anonymity Has Come to America

An Effort investigation has identified a coordinated operation to influence American lawmakers by five foreign non-government organizations and their US affiliates. These NGOs have converged upon a unified strategy: use the rhetoric of ‘child safety’ to advocate for digital ID laws that would prevent adults from using the internet anonymously. In Britain, they succeeded in passing those laws. They now form part of a system which surveils, arrests, and jails political dissidents. Digital ID laws are a key component used to strip Brits of internet anonymity, an otherwise effective technological countermeasure against authoritarianism. British NGOs are now replicating their playbook in the United States of America, attempting to pass a patchwork of digital ID laws in 21 states and the US Congress. One British NGO, 5Rights, registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, but has failed to file critical information related to its foreign leadership. All five foreign NGOs have influenced American policy, either directly or using American proxies with significant foreign management. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was founded by British Labour consultants Imran Ahmed and Morgan McSweeney2. CCDH has already been involved in censorship scandals in the US and UK. They led a boycott campaign against X immediately after Elon Musk’s acquisition, sponsored major censorship legislation in the UK, and frequently hosted events in which US and UK government officials advocated for censorship.3 Federal filing periodRegistrantReported amountReported issue 2021 Q3Lot Sixteen$20,000Online misinformation and hate speech; COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. LDA report. 2021 Q4Lot Sixteen$20,000Online misinformation and hate speech; COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. LDA report. 2022 Q1Lot Sixteen$10,000Online misinformation, hate speech, and platform accountability. LDA report. 2026 Q1CCDH, in house$5,698.31Section 230 reform; the Sunset Section 230 Act; the DEFIANCE Act; and the AI LEAD Act. America First Legal, a law firm connected with the Trump administration, accused CCDH of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in 2024. The US Department of Justice has not publicly announced any investigation into CCDH, and did not respond to our request for comment. Effort independently corroborated the core claims made in this letter about the nationalities and residences of CCDH leadership — that Imran Ahmed is CEO of both organizations and is a British national, that Clark and Brookes are shared directors of both US and UK entities, and that McNeill was a board member until July 11, 2024. CCDH supported bills with the explicit intent of importing British laws. A joint statement by Buffy Wicks, the lead author of AB 2273, Jordan Cunningham, another AB 2273 author, and 5Rights Foundation states, “The Bill is practicable and realistic, drawing as it does on the UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC).” AB 2273 was co-designed by 5Rights Foundation, a foreign principal that paid to lobby for AB 2273, according to their own Foreign Agents Registration Act filing. 5Rights is the leading NGO promoting the British Age Appropriate Design Code / AB 2273 model across American states. 5Rights engaged on 42 bills across 18 states, 11 of which have become law. 5Rights paid Capitol Connection $50,000 to lobby in the California Legislature from May to September 2022. They did not disclose this lobbying on behalf of a foreign agent until 2024, over a year after the bill they lobbied for passed. In their disclosure, Capitol Connection denied that 5Rights was supervised, owned, directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized by a foreign government, foreign political party, or other foreign principal. They did not submit any information for question 12, which could have clarified what level of control Kidron, their founder and then-director, had over 5Rights. 5Rights is a British nonprofit founded by Baroness Beeban Tania Kidron, who sits in the British House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament. Despite the British government using these laws to target political dissidents, Baroness Kidron and 5Rights now advocate for VPN bans, a change that would add the UK to a small number of authoritarian regimes — Russia, China, and North Korea — that ban VPNs.4 A central node in that British censorship ecosystem is the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. They have contracted with the US State Department, European Union, and several UK ministries for a total of over $17M US dollars.5 Government funding records by jurisdiction United States $11.21m European Union $5.54m United Kingdom $0.72m ISD’s contracts explicitly describe a mission to control internet speech. In the reports and policy recommendations produced for these contracts,6 ISD conflates political dissent with “misinformation”, “extremism”, “hate speech”, or even “violent extremism”, both justifying and enabling censorship by governments foreign and domestic. PeriodGovernment counterpartyContract descriptionReported amountRecord 2023UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport“Research into climate-related mis/disinformation affecting the UK”£37,677Contract record 2022Ofcom“Analysis of online hate in the UK”£79,250Contracts Finder 2021–2023US Department of State“Young people’s online and offline initiatives”$422,408.08USAspending 2023–2024US Department of State“Social cohesion and anti-Ukraine narratives”$246,669USAspending 2023–2024US Department of State“Community resilience against hate and polarization”$249,783.96USAspending 2024US Department of State“City-led strategies against hate initiative”$24,578.09USAspending 2024–2027European Commission, DG CNECT“Digital Services Act compliance monitoring, five-member consortium”€4,861,089 consortium total; ISD share undisclosedTED award notice ISD has lobbied federally in the United States.7 Their report states that “a majority of Board members sit on both boards so that decisions can be taken collectively.” Reset Tech is yet another global consortium with overlapping leadership. Reset describes its own governance as follows: “We are governed by a Board of Directors that oversees our global operations.”8 Reset Tech Action, Reset Tech’s US 501(c)4 affiliate, spent $1,352,800 lobbying Congress and state legislatures from 2024 through Q2 2026. Effort found significant overlap between Reset Tech and 5Rights: 4 of 6 bills it lobbied for are bills 5Rights engaged with, including AB 2273, the bill 5Rights also lobbied for.9 Reset Tech is also tied to ISD through their EU affiliate, Reset Tech GmbH, which received €4.9M from the EU government as part of the consortium led by ISD. In theory, there may be age verification laws which do not contribute to authoritarian control of speech. However, when foreign principals are lobbying for age verification law, during a time when those laws are being used to suppress political speech in their home countries, it cannot be a surprise if those laws are used for the same purposes in America. Footnotes Effort mapped engagements based on public statements, records, and news coverage. The map is a lower bound of engagements the Effort team was able to verify, but the list of engagements might be incomplete. Morgan McSweeney is identified as a founder by The Times and the New Statesman in coverage of the launch. CCDH’s website continues to identify Imran Ahmed as its founder and CEO. CCDH-supported UK censorship legislation: Draft Online Safety Bill Online Safety Bill Online Safety Act 2023 X boycott campaign and censorship speeches In an article titled “The VPN loophole in the fight to protect children,” Kidron called social media bans without VPN bans “for show and headlines, not for children.” This rhetoric is deployed for a VPN-ban policy which would predominantly affect adults. We use conversion rates for July 27, 2026: €1 = $1.1389 and €1 = £0.85524. It excludes the £635,204 aggregate for three unnamed government contracts and the £2,322,079 unallocated government-and-multilateral remainder. PeriodGovernment counterpartyRecipient ISD entityContract / award / spend recordReported amountRecord 2024Government counterparties not namedInstitute for Strategic Dialogue (UK)Three government contracts reported in the annual-return summary£635,204Charity Commission record 2024Multiple governments and multilateralsInstitute for Strategic Dialogue (UK)Accounts-listed funders: US State Department; European Union; UK FCDO, DCMS and Home Office; Australian DFAT; Danish MFA; New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs; Public Safety Canada; Canadian Privy Council; UNESCO; German Government; and Ministerium der Finanzen des LandesNot separately disclosedISD 2024 accounts 2024Government and multilateral institutionsInstitute for Strategic Dialogue (UK)Undisclosed remainder after the three-contract aggregate£2,322,079Calculated from £2,957,283 less £635,204; see 2024 accounts. 2019–2021London MOPACInstitute for Strategic Dialogue (UK)Comprehensive scoping, engagement and consultation process£50,000MOPAC contract register 2022OfcomInstitute for Strategic Dialogue (UK)Analysis of online hate in the UK£79,250Contracts Finder 2022–2024London MOPACInstitute for Strategic Dialogue (UK)Shared Endeavour Fund independent fund evaluation£49,961.75MOPAC register 2023–2024London MOPACInstitute for Strategic Dialogue (UK)Shared Endeavour Fund independent fund evaluation extension£61,746MOPAC register 2023UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & SportInstitute for Strategic Dialogue (UK)Research into climate-related mis/disinformation affecting the UK£37,677Open-contract record 2024UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development OfficeInstitute for Strategic Dialogue (UK)PPM consultancy spend recorded in January£102,437.90FCDO spend file 2024UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development OfficeInstitute for Strategic Dialogue (UK)PPM consultancy spend recorded in March£158,752.07FCDO spend file