The social media campaign against Rod Liddle, rumoured to be made editor of the Independent, is not just illiberal, argues Hari Kunzru, it is dangerous, censorious, and inexcusable. The centre-left has damaged the culture of free speech in Britain
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Social networking website Twitter, along with the pro-opposition website mowjcamp.org, has been targeted by a group of pro-government hackers calling themselves the Iranian Cyber Army accordning. Both websites, which became focal points for the mobilisation of anti-government protests, were reportedly replaced with a message stating that “this site has been hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army”, followed by an anti-American statement mocking perceived attempts by the US to “control” Iran’s internet. Read more here
Moldova’s Prosecutor General Office has dropped criminal proceedings against the people accused of using social networking websites to organise violent street protests in Chisinau in April, following the ppposition protest against the results of the parliamentary election.
The key suspects were journalists Natalia Morar, Oleg Bregha, and Gabriel Stati, the son of one of Moldova’s richest businessman. Morar has admitted using Twitter after the controversial 5 April parliamentary elections, but said she never intended for violence to occur and is not responsible for those actions.
Thousands of people took part in the protests organised by the opposition parties, who came to power after a second poll in July.
Read more here
The Lords and the Commons are in conflict over the criminalisation of “incitement to homophobic hatred” — specifically the inclusion of a “free speech clause” in the Coroners and Justice Bill, which would allow for criticism of “sexual conduct and practice”.
The clause is apparently intended to allow religious evangelicals to criticise homosexuality as their interpretation of their scriptures might suggest. But of course, it is not only the religious who need their free speech protected. Without this clause would, say, the Daily Mail’s Jan Moir have found herself in the dock for her article after the death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately, full as it was of insinuations and smears about the supposed dark side of homosexual lifestyle? Would the 20,000 tweeters who reported Moir’s article to the Press Complaints Commission really be happy to have her classed as a criminal for writing an unpleasant article? One would hope not. While there was some concern over the seeming mob censorship of Gatelygate, surely it’s preferable to governmental legislation establishing what people can and can’t say?
But here is the core of the issue: the very fact that a “free speech clause” needs to be inserted suggests something crucial about UK laws: free expression is not a default position, whether in the libel courts or in the Commons. Until that principal is elevated, we will continue to see arguments over controversial legislation such as this.