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However, the plans have drawn pushback, including from the Free Speech Union (FSU), which noted that despite hundreds of thousands of non-crime hate incidents being recorded by police, they have not provided evidence that the practice prevented any actual crimes.
Kurt Zindulka, Breitbart, 29th August 2024.
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“Keir Starmer has been encouraging the authorities to prosecute people for supposedly whipping up violence on social media.”
On the latest Planet Normal podcast, which you can listen to using the audio player above, columnists Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson speak to Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union, about the prosecutions related to social media posts in the wake of recent riots.
Allison Pearson, Liam Halligan, Isabelle Bougeard, The Telegraph, 29th August 2024.
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Yvette Cooper has been accused of suggesting that everyone arrested in connection with the riots is guilty. Campaigners have urged the Home Secretary to order the deletion of a tweet from the Home Office’s official account which referred to more than 1,000 people detained by the police as “criminals”. In a letter to Ms Cooper, the Free Speech Union raised concerns that the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, risked prejudicing the trials of those yet to appear in court.
Nick Gutteridge, The Telegraph, 22nd August 2024.
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Responding to a legal challenge from the Free Speech Union (FSU), government lawyers noted that “concerns” had been raised with them about the “consequences for delivering English [higher education] in foreign countries which have restrictions on free speech”.
Camilla Turner, The Telegraph, 24th August 2024.
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A Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) approved by Thanet council in July has now been rescinded following a threat of costly legal action by the Free Speech Union. Cabinet members made the decision at a meeting last night (August 22) following recommendations by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel that the council’s proposed Alcohol and Antisocial Behaviour PSPO be re-considered.
Kathy Bailes, The Isle of Thanet News, 23rd August 2024.
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But the local authority has now revoked its new Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) after the Free Speech Union (FSU) threatened to make it the subject of a judicial review battle in the High Court, after cabinet members met to discuss the issue tonight.
The FSU opposed the council’s new order on the grounds it could prevent a person’s right to protest peacefully due to “too vague and too broad” parameters about how they could express discontent.
James Pallant, Kent Online, 22nd August 2024.
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However, the new PSPO has faced a legal challenge from the Free Speech Union which says there are issues with the wording of the PSPO and also with the consultation that was carried out in May. The decision was called in to the scrutiny panel by chairman Cllr Phil Fellows due to the council receiving a letter under the pre-action protocol for judicial review from the Free Speech Union (FSU). The FSU said it would apply to judicially review the PSPO decision.
Kathy Bailes, The Isle of Thanet News, 21st August 2024.
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Good God, there’s a lot of guff being talked about the Online Safety Act. This was a piece of legislation passed by the previous government to make the UK ‘the safest place in the world to go online’. To free speech advocates like me, that sounded ominous, given that ‘safety’ is always invoked by authoritarian regimes to clamp down on free speech. But after we raised the alarm, the government stripped out the most draconian clauses and put in some protections for freedom of expression, so even though it’s bad, it’s not quite as awful as it could have been.
Toby Young, The Spectator, 17th August 2024.
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The reaction has been swift; with Toby Young of the Free Speech Union fearing that “it is a sign of much worse to come,” and Tom Tugendhat MP accusing the Government of having “caved into” universities who have proved themselves “unable to stand up for freedom of expression.”
Thomas Wilson, Conservative Home, 16th August 2024.
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It could also burden the police with the same muddle as the similarly un-Conservative Non-Crime Hate Incidents, which the Free Speech Union branded “a chilling restriction of our free speech.”
Dr Sarah Ingham, Conservative Home, 16th August 2024.
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