What Can I Do?

There are many ways you can take action to stamp out SLAPPs to ensure everyone can speak out on issues that are important to them. SLAPPs can target all speech and so we are all at risk. This page will highlight a number of ways we can tell the Government, MPs, peers and other key stakeholders that we need statutory anti-SLAPP protections.

Day of Action – 15th April 2026

On 13 May, the King’s Speech will take place. This will outline what the Government will prioritise for the next legislative session. To ensure parliamentarians can work together on establishing universal anti-SLAPP protections we need anti-SLAPP provisions to be included. Here are ways you can call for change. Ahead of this occasion, the Coalition is organising a Day of Action to bring together our support and amplify our calls for robust and universal anti-SLAPP protections.

Just under a month until the King’s Speech, this will be our last opportunity to show the Government that this is an issue of public importance and that meaningful action is needed.

Ways you can get involved:

Encourage your MP to be an anti-SLAPP Champion in Parliament

Engaging with your constituency MP about the issue could encourage them to pick up the issue and make some noise about it. This can include raising parliamentary questions, sharing content online through their channels and reaching out to the Government to tell them there is cross-party parliamentary support for an Anti-SLAPP Law.

Write to your MP

Here is a template letter you can send to your MP asking for anti-SLAPP provisions to be included in the King’s Speech. Just copy and paste it into your email. Please feel free to adapt or amend as appropriate.

To find out the name and email address of your constituency MP, click here. All you need to do is enter your postcode. If the MP is a member of the Privy Council, you can address them as Rt. Hon. i.e. Rt. Hon. Sir Keir Starmer. Members can be found here.

Dear <NAME OF MP> 

I am contacting you as one of your constituents asking you to back calls for anti-SLAPP provisions to be included in the forthcoming King’s Speech. We must make time to protect everyone’s right to speak up and speak out.

SLAPPs or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation are abusive legal threats or actions brought by wealthy or powerful parties to stifle criticism or independent reporting. This issue does not just threaten journalists, everyone, including your constituents are at risk. Everyone from social media users, local campaigners, sexual abuse survivors, journalists, bloggers, academics, online reviewers and victims’ advocates have been threatened with costly, time-intensive and traumatic legal threats. Their crime? To speak out to challenge wrongdoing, demand transparency or share their personal experiences. The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition has highlighted the use of SLAPPs across British society.  

Each of these threats means thousands spent on lawyers and legal advice (if they can afford it), a distraction from work and the emotional turmoil that comes with navigating the British justice system. Not only do SLAPPs impact their direct target, they can remove information from the public domain. What don’t we know because a legal threat has forced someone to withdraw an article or other piece of information? 

With the King’s Speech expected in May 2026, the best way we can stop this abuse is by calling for the Government to include universal anti-SLAPP provisions in the speech so parliamentary time will be given to establishing a law stamping out this abuse. This would give courts the tools they need to discard SLAPPs early, before legal costs had accrued and address the financial inequality between those behind the threats and those targeted. Currently there is no law that protects us or British courts from this type of abuse. 

An anti-SLAPP law can protect everyone who realises their right to free speech and wants to speak out on the issues that are important to them. 

I hope you see the importance of action on this issue. I believe that without free speech, beyond the control of the wealthy and powerful, our democracy is at risk. 

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Kind regards,

<INSERT NAME>

Share information about SLAPPs through your networks

SLAPPs thrive in silence, so by sharing information publicly through your online and offline networks you are helping build public awareness of this issue and showing SLAPP targets that they are not alone and that they shouldn’t suffer in silence. It will also increase the amount of information in the public domain that policymakers and others can access.

Social media messaging

Here are some messages you can share on social media and other platforms to help raise public awareness of the issue. Please feel free to amend as appropriate.

  • The Government has a duty to protect people from legal bullying. The first step? A clear commitment to stamping out SLAPPs in the King’s Speech. Silence helps abusers. Action protects us all. #StopSLAPPs

 

 

  • Speaking out should not cost you your home, health, or future. Yet without protection against legal bullies, too often it can. Tell the Government they can act to #stopSLAPPs www.antislapp.uk  

 

  • No matter who you are, rich or poor, the law should protect you equally. But right now, people with money and power can abuse the legal system to silence others. Tell your MP, it’s time for a universal Anti-SLAPP law. #StopSLAPPs https://antislapp.uk/solutions/take-action

 

 

Shareables

Here are some graphics that you can use to further amplify your social media messages calling for anti-SLAPP provisions to be included in the King’s Speech.

Megaphone icon

Get your voice heard!

Sign our petition to tell the Government: stop the rich and powerful ruining the lives of those who speak up by bringing forward an anti-SLAPP law without delay.

Sign the petition here
UK Anti-Slapp Coalition
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