Former PM calls for global censorship – JONATHAN TURLEY

In the 1999 cult classic The Blair Witch Projecta character tells his friends, “I could help you, but I’d rather stand here and record it.” Advocates of free speech often feel that other citizens have become passive spectators as an anti-free speech movement grows around us, threatening our “indispensable right.”

One of the most notorious figures in this movement is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has long been the laughing stock of censorship. As leader of the Labour Party, Blair implemented some of the first crackdowns on free speech in the UK. He is now calling for global censorship efforts to expand these efforts.

In an interview on LBC Radio, Blair stated:

“The world is going to have to come together and agree on some rules around social media platforms. It’s not just about how people can stir up animosity and hate, but I think… the impact on young people, particularly when they have access to mobile phones at a young age and they’re reading and receiving a lot of things that are really messing with their minds in a big way.”

We recently discussed how the UK is already using the recent riots to crack down harder on people with opposing or ‘toxic’ views.

I have been writing for years about the decline in freedom of speech in the UK and the continuing stream of arrests.

A man was convicted of sending a drunken tweet referencing dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police T-shirt. Another was arrested for calling his ex-girlfriend’s Irish boyfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”

Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thoughtcrime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was jailed for four years for what the court called his “toxic ideology”, based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

While most of us find Brock’s views repugnant and hateful, they were confined to his head and his chambers. Yet Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed concerns about freedom of speech or thought with a truly Orwellian statement: “I am not condemning you for your political views, but the extremity of those views affects the assessment of dangerousness.”

Lodder criticized Brock for his Nazi and other hateful values:

“(i)t is clear that you are a far-right extremist, your enthusiasm for this abhorrent and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography that you have studied and appear to share with others…”

Even though Lodder admitted that the suspect was elderly, had limited mobility and that there was “no evidence of transmission to others,” he still sent him to prison for adhering to extremist views.

After the conviction, Detective Chief Inspector Kath Barnes, head of the South East Counter Terrorism Branch (CTPSE), warned others that he would go to prison because he had “demonstrated a clear right-wing ideology through the evidence seized from his assets during the investigation…We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology that could threaten public safety and security.”

Blair’s views are shared by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who declared:

“Disinformation is dangerous. Social media is good, but it’s also bad when people use it in a way that can cause a riot, a threat, intimidation, and suggests that we should attack someone, that’s not acceptable. What we need to do is actually correct what’s there, otherwise I think the government needs to think long and hard about what they’re going to do with social media and what they’re going to put forward as a bill in parliament.

“I believe it should be broadly supported. It doesn’t matter what country you’re in. The fact is that disinformation is dangerous and there should be no misinformation, threats or intimidation on social media platforms.”