Therefore, it is crucial that we remain alert to global digital regulation trends and actively defend freedom of expression, avoiding the adoption of European models, as freedom is lost gradually, slice by slice, through centralized decisions.
The liberty to be anonymous online is worth protecting, not because anonymity is an absolute good, but because the alternatives proposed by the state are far worse.
Which means it’s a very good week for free speech.
Now that leftists are facing the consequences of free speech, they can’t identify the inconsistency. I suspect that is more likely the result of political inconvenience than genuine confusion.
The alternative is ongoing decline or an adoption of colourblind authoritarianism which would see us acquiesce to ongoing reductions in freedom in the name of public safety whilst gaining nothing for it.
There are few things more offensive than arresting and punishing a person for making a joke you don’t like.
Cultivating a culture of courage, a willingness to hear one another’s ideas, can throw a wrench into the whole censorious groupthink machine.
Winston Peter’s heckler voided his free speech rights the moment he put the company lanyard around his neck.
The heckler wasn’t just some random punter exercising his rights. He’s a vociferous DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) spokesman for Tonkin + Taylor, a company that prides itself on ‘inclusivity’ and professionalism, especially when dealing with Government clients like KiwiRail.
Some colleagues and I will be proposing various amendments to the Employment Rights Bill in the Lords in an effort to scrap the ‘banter ban’.
Censorship is often less about making the world a safer place for minorities and more about indulging our own capacity for cruelty.
Cartoonist exhibition cancelled because someone might not like it.
The real goal is to shut Substack (as we’ve known it) down – which must mean the truth bombs its correspondents are launching every day are starting to hit too close to key targets.
Over the last 15 years, the institutional left has aggressively censored and destroyed their critics. As a result, many people – at least those with something to lose – have gone silent. Then came Trump.
Comedy plays a more important role in society: the ability to bring people together. Nothing brings people together like laughter.
If we excuse the erosion of these fundamental freedoms, we have learned nothing about history. Empires rise and fall, and so do nation states and their freedoms. They are often hard fought and easily lost.
