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In the Media

Articles That Mention the Free Speech Union

Facebook’s free speech reforms fall short of the mark

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LAST FRIDAY, Facebook removed a Free Speech Union (FSU) post about YouTube’s deletion of a video about vaccine harms. So much for Mark Zuckerberg’s fancy talk about ‘free speech’. The post, which highlighted the stigma and, ironically, censorship faced by those injured by the covid vaccines, was of course entirely lawful. Indeed, it was made by a human rights lawyer who is giving evidence to the covid inquiry. Its removal raises questions about the extent to which the platform’s pivot to a ‘Community Notes’ system (as part of a broader, sector-wide turn towards user-based verification systems) is quite the historic moment for online free speech that some observers claim.

Dr Frederick Attenborough, TCW, 19th January 2025.

Free speech is still in peril on campus

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The sorry saga of the UK’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act reached a desultory conclusion this week. While it had been passed in parliament under the previous Conservative government in response to growing concerns about cancel culture on campuses, it had not been implemented by the time of the General Election. Within days of the Labour government taking office in July, it was dumped by the new education secretary, Bridget Phillipson. Following a backlash from academics and threatened legal action from the Free Speech Union, the Freedom of Speech Act has now been revived, albeit in a watered-down form. Whether this new, de-fanged version will be enough to put an end to the No Platforming, cancelling and self-censorship that plagues our universities remains to be seen.

Joanna Williams, Spiked Online, 17th January 2025.

Labour’s university law will be free speech in name only

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Labour’s initial attempt to kick this late-term Tory legislation into the long grass by pressing the pause button is a worrying sign. It shows that the party is not seriously committed to protecting academic freedom when it inevitably collides with hurt feelings. As Government sources have alleged, the act was a “hate speech charter”. Ministers have only acted because of overwhelming opposition and lobbying from high-profile academics such as Richard Dawkins and an imminent judicial review brought by the Free Speech Union.

Eric Kaufmann, Unherd, 16th January 2025.

Labour revives free speech law — minus controversial clause

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The act’s introduction preempts a judicial review against its suspension, brought by the Free Speech Union, due to be held at the end of this month. There was an outcry from academics and high-profile campaigners against the act being paused. A letter to the Times, signed by hundreds of supporters, said that academics and students had been hounded, censured, silenced or even sacked over the past 20 years for expressing legal opinions.

Nicola Woolcock, Georgia Lambert, The Times, 15th January 2025.

Bridget Phillipson to revive free speech laws after backlash from academics

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Ms Phillipson is facing legal action after the Free Speech Union (FSU) launched a High Court case against her suspension of the Act, with a judicial review set to take place on Jan 23. Losing would be a humiliating episode for the Government. The FSU has argued that Ms Phillipson’s decision to pause the legislation went beyond her ministerial powers.

Poppy Wood, The Telegraph, 14th January 2025.

Speake for England, Martin!

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A well-reasoned intervention, you might think — especially considering the recent Employment Tribunal ruling in the case of Free Speech Union (FSU) member Sean Corby, which affirmed that opposition to CRT constitutes a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010 (“EqA”). While this ruling emerged from the specific context of an Employment Tribunal, it’s an important precedent that reinforces the legal protections around philosophical beliefs, especially those challenging dominant ideologies.

Freddie Attenborough, The Critic, 14th January 2025.

UK Monitoring of Musk Online Reveals “Pathetic” Priorities

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Priority concerns aside, Free Speech Union director Toby Young told europeanconservative.com that “the idea the taxpayer needs to fund a government unit to ‘monitor’ Elon Musk’s tweets is ridiculous” since “it costs nothing to open an account on X and once you’ve done that Elon’s tweets are completely unavoidable. What”, asked Young, “is the government’s ‘report’ going to consist of? “A compendium of those tweets? You can see all of them by clicking on Elon’s avatar and it’s completely free.”

Michael Curzon, European Conservative, 10th January 2025.

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