Britain said on Monday that it had blocked entry to two prominent American commentators, Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker, because of their “potential risk” to British society, a decision that came amid debate about the limits of free speech in the country.
Mr. Uygur and Mr. Piker, two progressive activists with popular social media channels, were set to speak at events in Britain this week. Both expressed outrage on social media and accused the British authorities of canceling their travel authorizations because of their vocal criticism of Israel.
The British Home Office, which manages border security, said in an emailed statement that the authorizations of the two American commentators had been canceled because their presence in Britain “may not be conducive to the public good.” The Home Office said that a decision to deny entry for that reason was “based solely on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose” to British society.
The statement did not mention Mr. Uygur and Mr. Piker’s criticism of Israel nor any of their other views. The Home Office declined to answer questions about the case or about the accusations from the two commentators that they were being targeted for their statements on Israel.
Mr. Uygur criticized the decision in a social media post on Sunday night, saying it was “due to my criticism of Israel” and calling the move “absolutely Kafkaesque.” He said that he had been planning to speak in Oxford, England.
Mr. Piker, who is Mr. Uygur’s nephew and who had been set to speak at the SXSW London festival, said on social media on Sunday that he had been barred from entering Britain “at the behest of israel.”
The festival did not respond to a request for comment. Israel’s embassy in London declined a request for comment.
Mr. Piker has denied accusations of antisemitism in the past, saying that his criticisms of Israel are confined to the country’s government and not directed at Jews broadly.
On his podcast, Mr. Piker has said that the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was the “direct consequence” of actions by the Israeli and U.S. governments.
The decision to block Mr. Uygur and Mr. Piker comes at a fraught time for the British government, which is trying to balance fears of rising antisemitism with debates about free speech in the social media age. It follows the move in April to deny entry to Ye, the American rapper formerly known as Kanye West, because of his history of antisemitic comments.
Racial and religious attacks are on the rise in Britain. Last month, a commander of an Iran-backed militia was charged in the United States with overseeing a spate of arson attacks against British Jews and Jewish sites in Britain and Europe since the start of the Iran war.
A Jewish protection group in Britain, the Community Security Trust, said in an emailed statement on Monday that it welcomed the decision to block Mr. Piker.
“While criticism of Israel is entirely legitimate, Piker has a record that goes far beyond robust or controversial political speech,” the group said, adding that his language risked fueling antisemitism.
“At a time of record levels of antisemitism in the U.K., it is right that this has been recognized and addressed,” the group said.
David Taylor, a lawmaker from the governing Labour Party in Britain, also supported the decision to bar Mr. Piker, writing on social media on Monday, “There’s no reason to open our doors to those who seek to spread hate and division.”
But two high-profile figures of the British left who have both been critical of Israel — Zack Polanski, the leader of the Green Party, and Jeremy Corbyn, a former Labour leader who now heads an upstart leftist party — condemned the move.
In a post on social media, Mr. Corbyn called it “an attack on the freedom to criticise Israel” and “an absurd and cowardly decision from an increasingly authoritarian government.”
Britain has attracted criticism from American thinkers on both the right and the left for the country’s rules on freedom of expression.
Britain does not have an equivalent of the First Amendment, which sanctifies free speech in the United States. But it is a member of the European Convention on Human Rights, which contains a provision guaranteeing free speech.
The free-speech debate in Britain intensified in 2024 after anti-immigrant riots that prompted British courts to hand down jail sentences for those who made inflammatory posts on social media.
Activists in Britain have also been fighting a legal battle against the British government over the arrests of peaceful protesters who carried signs in support of a pro-Palestine organization, Palestine Action, that the authorities have labeled a terrorist group.
