When it comes to threats to freedom of religion and speech, the censorship that comes from court cases and arrests tend to get the headlines.

But there are increasing concerns that over-regulation, often undertaken quietly behind the scenes, is starting to impinge on these fundamental rights.

Without announcement or fanfare, the European Union regulations around privacy and data have recently led to Christian and conservative apps being banned or blocked in the Apple App store.

The Alliance Defending Freedom highlighted three instances of this censorship, with the Charlie Kirk Show being blocked on the podcast app, along with the Catholic prayer app Hallow and the Bible Gateway app being blocked in the App store.

Most troubling of all is reporters and the operators of these apps are finding it difficult to identify what is triggering these bans.

Reporters for PJ Media were unable to uncover answers, but noted “the common theory is that the UK and EU’s “safety features” are at the heart of the matter”.

Alex Jones, the founder of the Hallow app, commented earlier this year that China had already blocked them from the App store and increasing EU regulations are making things very difficult for their operations in Europe.

Some users are reverting to virtual private networks (VPNs) to access these apps.

Whether this is an algorithmic error or a deliberate censorship of Christian and conservative viewpoints remains to be seen, but it is a clear illustration of the perils of trying to police free speech and freedom of religion.

It’s also the next logical step after the more overt acts of online censorship like Australia’s eSafety Commissioner’s attempts to silence Billboard Chris, an effort that ultimately failed but not before a lengthy legal process.

While that was bad enough, this more secretive regulatory censorship is more sinister and requires even more diligence from those of us who want to defend our fundamental rights of faith and speech.