Letters: Who Will Be Affected If There Is an Internet Crackdown?

Boycott the apartheid bankers (see below)

There has been much talk about controlling social media and the internet to stop fascists from spreading their hatred, but we must be wary of such actions.

A student recently became the first woman in Britain to be locked up under new online safety laws, and she wasn’t a Nazi. She was someone who threatened to kill her estranged mother during an angry phone call.

Police arrested Jorja Cockram-Smyth after an angry phone call to her social worker. A probation officer later told the court that Cockram-Smyth “does suffer from multiple complex needs.

“She has autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, a chromosomal disorder that is unique to her, PTSD, and a visual impairment. She clearly has major issues that are causing problems.”

Cockram-Smyth spent three weeks in Styal Women’s Prison over the phone. The new law makes it a criminal offence to send messages that “convey a threat of death, serious injury, rape or serious financial loss”.

It’s clearly a difficult issue, although I’m sure sending someone to jail won’t help. The key point is that when laws are passed to regulate online material, the police will determine what is and isn’t targeted.

Maybe a few fascists will be arrested now if they are particularly open about their murderous intent. But I bet in the long run more socialists and environmentalists will be brought to justice.

The clause that prohibits posts that promote “serious financial loss” is a gift to big business. I have no sympathy for those who promote racist filth. But I do not want to see the state given more powers like those used to imprison this woman.

Anne Sutherland, West London

Don’t let Barclays hide behind Tesco Bank

Barclay has announced plans to buy the retail banking arm of Tesco Bank. Under the deal, Barclays will use the Tesco brand to offer a range of products to consumers.

This could mislead the public, depriving them of the opportunity to avoid Barclays because of its serious involvement in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians. Barclays cannot hide behind the Tesco brand.

Barclays is deeply complicit in Israel’s genocidal attack on Palestinians in Gaza. The bank provides billions of pounds of financial services to arms companies that supply Israel with the weapons and military technology it uses in its attacks on Palestinians.

Tesco Bank is required to share any objections it receives with the High Court, which must approve the sale before it goes ahead. We need as many people as possible to object to stop the proposed deal.

If the sale goes ahead, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign will call for a boycott of Tesco Bank as part of its call for a boycott of Barclays. For campaign materials, visit tinyurl.com/PSCTesco

Edward Thornley, Birmingham

Let Begum return to Britain

Don’t forget Shamima Begum. The Supreme Court’s refusal last week to hear her appeal against the revocation of her British citizenship is the latest setback in a long line of reversals.

British courts have recognized that she is most likely a victim of child trafficking, groomed by the Islamic State group for sexual exploitation. By stripping her of her British citizenship, she effectively becomes stateless.

But the Home Secretary can strip away all the rights that come with a British passport from someone like Begum, potentially without warning. If Begum has committed a crime, the British legal system is more than capable of bringing her to justice.

The idea that this young woman poses such a risk that the British courts cannot handle her is ludicrous. For the past five years, first heavily pregnant and then grieving the loss of two children, Begum’s home has been a prison camp run by the Kurdish authorities in north-eastern Syria.

The neighboring detention facility, al-Hawl, has been described by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as “the worst camp that exists in the world today.” In May, the U.S. repatriated 11 of its citizens in similar situations and facilitated the return home of Canadian, Dutch and Finnish citizens in the same operation. Begum should come home.

Fawzia Bakht, East London

Democracy is denied after French elections

Behind the razzamatazz of the Olympics here in France, President Emmanuel Macron is not winning medals for respecting democracy. Although his party lost the election three weeks ago — by more than 75 seats — Macron refuses to appoint a prime minister from the New Popular Front, the left-wing alliance with more seats in parliament than any other grouping.

His defeated government remains in place, the greatest affront to democracy since World War II. It is not just a delay.

There are even media reports that he may try to install a right-wing politician as prime minister. We must now demand a left-wing government, and an immediate reversal of last year’s brutal attack on pensions. Mass mobilization will be the key to achieving these demands.

John Mullen Paris, France

There is a big political divide

I think there is a two-tiered police force in Britain. But don’t worry, I don’t mean the same as Tommy Robinson and his racist gang.

For starters, police are four times more likely to stop and frisk a black person than a white person. And then there’s the flood of official reports showing that the police are institutionally racist and sexist.

Rather than thinking of this as a ‘woke’ force discriminating against white people, it is racist to the core.

Josephine Glover, Newcastle

Stop the new wave of deportations

Labour must take urgent action on evictions. The number of claims by banks and landlords to repossess homes in England and Wales has reached a five-year high. Official figures last week showed that claims for mortgage repossession by lenders had risen by more than a third on a year earlier. We need strong laws against evictions, as well as rent caps and mass council housebuilding.

Natasha Ruddick, South London

Force a winter fuel bend

Thank you for being part of the protest over the government’s decision to scrap winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners (Socialist Worker, 7 August). It makes a huge difference to people like me who need just over the limit to claim pension credit. I hope there will be a strong push to force Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves to change her mind in the 30 October Budget.

Lawrence Jeffries, Manchester