After barely two months as Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer has already demonstrated his hostility to freedom of speech (The Telegraph).
When Elon Musk vocally criticised his handling of the UK riots, Sir Kier hit back, indirectly blaming content shared on X for the disruption. He promised to review social media law to prevent further disorder. This would mean that content that is nebulously described as “legal but harmful” would be subject to censorship from social media companies.
What’s more, Sir Kier has scrapped the incoming ‘The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023’ that would have protected free speech at universities.
In light of these decisions, Telegraph asked their readers to weigh in on Sir Kier Starmer, reflecting on his attitude to civil liberties.
Uneasy that social media content could be assessed for its truthfulness an anonymous reader argued: “If it’s not illegal, it should be permitted. We can’t have the Government deciding what posts will and will not be permitted. It’s authoritarian and dangerous.”
Another anonymous reader asks: “None of us can even begin to question what is fake news, and that leads to the obvious question … what is the definition of fake news? Could you remove someone’s liberty based on a retweet of a tweet their mate sent? Who will police this?”
Matthew Clifton questions whether online misinformation is being used a scapegoat to introduce tighter central control over social media: “9/11 was used to justify attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq and introduce massive electronic surveillance of US citizens by the intelligence services.
“Riots in the UK used to prosecute the posting of ‘fake’ news on social media providers to intimidate them and their users to accept the media and government’s narrative and spin.”
Clifton continued: “Never waste a good crisis as they say. In America it is often said of the Left, they’re coming for your guns, here in the UK, they’re coming for your thoughts. Very dangerous territory ahead.”
When it comes to understanding Starmer’s attitude to free speech, Karen Warner seems to have the right idea. Mocking the Government’s intrusive approach, she ironically offers a solution: “Bring in the Ministry of Truth to save us all.”
Worth reading in full.
The Prime Minister’s recent clamp down on free speech is deeply worrying. Since the beginning of August, we’ve witnessed the greatest assault on free speech in this country since Oliver Cromwell passed a law banning all theatrical performances in 1642.
In the wake of the civil unrest that spread across the UK following the murder of three children in Southport, Sir Keir Starmer has blamed ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ on social media for whipping up violence and urged the authorities to prosecute people for saying supposedly inflammatory things online.
As a result, a man who has been sent to jail for 18 months for sharing something “offensive” that someone else said on Facebook, another man was sent down for three years for posting “anti-Establishment rhetoric” and a third man was jailed for 18 months for chanting “Who the f*** is Allah?”.
Stephen Parkinson, the Director of Public Prosecutions, has even warned that people sharing footage of the riots online may be prosecuted. “People might think they’re not doing anything harmful, they are, and the consequences will be visited upon them,” he said.
This threatening language is more reminiscent of a tin-pot dictatorship than the birthplace of parliamentary democracy and it has unleashed a wave of terror across the country, with hundreds of thousands of people now worried that they may be sent to prison for posting something un-PC online.
This has to stop.
We need to remind the Prime Minister, a former human rights lawyer, that free speech is the most important human right of all because without it we wouldn’t be able to defend any of the others.
If you’re concerned about the Prime Minister’s assault on free speech, please use our campaigning tool (here) to write to your local MP, using our template letter.
Completing the form is a simple, fast process that can have a significant impact. We’ve even provided a template to help, but feel free to personalise it – and make sure you write in your name, address and email address at the foot of the letter (in addition to filling out the boxes requesting the same).
Your voice matters and it’s vital that you make it heard.
