Does anyone have any good frequently updated podcasts, blogs, news, etc, focused on freedom of speech in the UK? Specifically technology focused freedoms?
I'm interested in updates to facial recognition, social media monitoring, "anti-social behavior" (AKA ASBOs), CCTV, basically all the things that scare me about the UK.
Post Snowden leaks with the GCHQ essentially devouring all internet content on the deep packet level, i've been hoping to hear more updates about the fight against that. Perhaps this is the very reason I've struggled to find resources that are somewhat from folks "on the ground"?
Thanks so much! Any leads much appreciated :)
Curious about what is scaring you btw.
According to Wikipedia "Privacy International (PI) is a UK-based registered charity that defends and promotes the right to privacy across the world."
They are well known in privacy circles and have done some excellent investigations in past.
- https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/
Are the ones I've come across
The reality is that the UK's "Communications Act" [0] does allow prosecutions for electronic communications (email, forums, and social media). The number of arrests under this Act are in the thousands, but it covers a wide range of issues like grooming, stalking, and racially aggravated hate crimes.
Earlier this year there were a number of violent & destructive riots across the UK which happened in response to a stabbing of 3 kids in Southport [1]. The riots were whipped up by a number of far-right entities on social media - personalities such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Andrew Tate, and Katie Hopkins - as well as more nebulous entities such as Europe Invasion. A crucial aspect of the far-right narrative was a false claim that the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker. Arrests were made for directly inciting violence [2] as well as for generating misinformation about the perpetrator [3].
The discussion around this is in the sensitive area of free speech vs hate speech. In the UK we are a little more nuanced about the absolute requirement for freedom of speech. While I do appreciate the argument that policing of speech can become dangerous depending on who does the policing, I think the case of the riots is a good example of where we may need to evolve our ideas about what it means to incite violence. This episode demonstrates social media's potency and the horrific potential of the deliberate spreading of misinformation.
[0] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/section/127
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Kingdom_riots
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/09/two...
[3] https://metro.co.uk/2024/08/08/woman-first-shared-fake-south...
# Free speech is dying in Britain - https://thespectator.com/topic/free-speech-died-britain/
Everything should be verified, but the article mentions cases that can be of concern.
This did not strengthen your comment. You know many innocent people plead guilty all the time.
> This fuels the narrative of Asian/muslim asylum seekers being a violent threat to British society
Narrative? That almost seems to imply it is wholly false [0]
"Moroccan asylum seeker Ahmed Alid, 45, roamed the streets in Hartlepool looking for a victim to attack in "revenge" for the Israel-Hamas conflict in October" [0]
(You need not point out that the overwhelming of terrorist incidents are by British-born people. I am addressing what you meant to imply by "narrative")
I don't find the German death camp analogy accurate or compelling; the Germans actively and deliberately herded up the Jews (and others) locked them up. This conscious intervention in the course of a living human being's life rendered responsibiloty onto the German state.
Have you heard of Judith Thompson's "famous violinist" thought experiment? [0] It neatly captures the idea of how a right to life oughtn't extend heavy legal responsibilities onto an individual. At least, most people would say that the main character has the right to say "no" to the situation.
[0] https://ethics.org.au/thought-experiment-the-famous-violinis...
The lies around this issue are really noticeable now. I used to believe that Yaxley-Lennon -- "Tommy Robinson" -- was a bigot, until I watched his Oxford union speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQ94jFg_4A
All violence should be condemned and prosecuted. However when looking for the causes, what happened regarding the riots wasn't "whipped up" by online agitators. It was the result of failure of government policy.
Successive governments have lost control of the border, and there have been insane policies, such as putting a hotel of unvetted migrant men into a hotel in Rotherham, where immigration notoriously resulted in mass rape by grooming gangs. The authorities turned a blind eye to grooming gangs, worried about being accused of racism. [1]
"The report found: "Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought as racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so".
Furthermore, the rioting occurred after the government suggested that rioting works. In Harehills, Leeds, government social workers returned children after riots. [2]
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-289390... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Harehills_riot
So in a riot of vastly smaller scale, there 27 arrests and 4 charged.
> protestors against Israel's actions in Gaza doing nazi salutes, for instance
In a protest that was overwhelmingly peaceful, there were 4 arrests, including of someone who did a nazi salute: https://www.mylondon.news/news/three-arrested-after-nazi-sal... . And if we compare it to the delightful things we're seeing in far-right protests:
- https://x.com/AntiRacismDay/status/1819790189369143691
- https://x.com/StanCollymore/status/1819451687566004237
The responses look proportionate to the behaviour.
He explained the riots within the context.
Not once did he say violence was justified.
In comparison, Nick Lowles, leader of a far-left organisation, claimed falsely that Muslims had been attacked with acid to inflame tensions.
I would encourage anyone to watch the Oxford union address. That you haven't seen it means that you are uninformed.
I would recommend anyone else watch it: