Your Disappearing Right to Freedom of Expression

Freedom of Expression: Article 10 of the Human Rights Act protects your right to hold your own opinions and to express them freely without government interference. But this basic right is about to be taken away for good.

It could be argued that we have never had greater freedom of expression. In these times, publishing is no longer just for the powerful publishing companies and media companies. Social media has transformed access to an audience for the individual. So why do I think it's dying?

Freedom of Expression for Whom?

But here's the thing. Widespread censorship already exists for those of us on the Right. Social Media is the conduit by which we are able to publish and disseminate our ideas, and yet the big 3 – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – actively stifle not only individual rights to publish but some of the most eminent scientists on the planet. Dr. Robert Malone, inventor and patent holder of the mRNA vaccine technology and the signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration have been some of the main targets of government and their complicit media lapdogs.

We have seen Facebook censor groups where scientists were debating the merits of masks, vaccinations, social distancing and lockdowns – legitimate topics for scientists of all stripes, you would have thought. Yet Facebook decided to slap “misinformation” or “fake news” alerts on them – following up with a threat to close down the group. They did the same to a climate change article in Science Magazine which challenged some of the extreme predictions calling them “uncomfortably outside these bounds”.

Mark Zuckerberg said “If you're not out there standing for things that people care about then it's not possible for people to feel strongly about what you're doing”. Sadly, he doesn't seem to live up to that in the slightest.

It is true that Facebook – sorry, Meta – is under huge pressure from the Left-wing activists to silence those on the Right. This left-wing cabal includes academia, most NGOs, the UN and pretty much every living civil servant, to curb “misinformation”. The Anglosphere governments who have hitherto been generally pro-free-speech are all looking into how to curb the proletariat from publishing “problematic” content – more on that later.

From the beginnings of our democratic history, we have believed that the best way to counter misinformation is more speech rather than less. It is clear that critical articles on trans rights, gender,, critical race theory and climate change are targets for censorship. Labelled “misinformation”, faceless “fact checkers” with political agendas make sure that these dangerous ideas never see the light of day.

By listing these things, I'm making no moral value-judgement on whether the Left has a case or not – perhaps they do, but the absence of debate on these fundamental issues means that they cannot be tested… and they ARE being tested!

Bad Government Regulation

In the UK, there are currently three threats to freedom of expression.

1. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which has been debated and amended by the UK's upper house (The Lords) and is due back in Parliament on 5th July 2022. Justice, the charity who, since 1957 has been effectively campaigning for a fairer justice system in the UK, points out that several of its proposals will have a serious chilling effect on the public's right to protest and go about their business without police interference. In particular, the police's increased powers to restrict peaceful protest is entirely excessive. Currently, if protests go beyond the usual levels of disruption, the government can get injunctions and use the court system to punish people who have overstepped the mark.
2. The Online Safety Bill proports to stop kids from getting hurt and trolls hounding poor innocent politicians. However, in paragraph 11, its section about protecting adults, states content deemed “harmful” to adults should be censored by social media companies. So what's harmful? Information about vaccines that contradicts government's official position? We've already seen that during Covid. Political ideologies that promote freedom of expression? We've seen that too. Content that challenges the “Net Zero” narrative? Many scientists are actively questioning the numbers – even the IPCC, though, as I mentioned above, that information was already censored. Allowing such a bill to pass would give the social media companies a license to censor anything that they disagreed with, or made sure that it would never appear in search results.
3. The Emergency Legislation was voted into law on 25 March 2020 and has still not bee repealed. As far as I know, the Covid emergency has passed but the bill is still very much in force. It gives police powers to fine people who are minding their own business, allows the government to restrict free movement and freedom of association, and could allow the government to limit freedom of expression in the interests of national health security. Governments NEVER give up powers they acquire. In WWII, licensing laws were created. We still have them today. Egypt instituted emergency legislation in 1981 after the assassination of Anwar El Sadat. The are still active and repressive today.

The evidence of other countries following suite is impressive. We all know how repressive Australia and New Zealand were during the Covid crisis and we can also see how Justin Trudeau is mishandling the trucker protests with cack-handed totalitarianism. This totalitarianism is spreading and Mr. Xi, Mr. Putin and Mr. Assad must be really enjoying this. Their brand is winning hands down.

You must fight to preserve democracy, Freedom of expression is not an optional extra. It is the foundation upon which democracy is built. It doesn't matter if you disagree with someone. It doesn't even matter if you think what they say is dangerous. All that matters is that you are willing to listen and counter-debate.

We need more speech, not less and your leaders, especially in the Anglosphere disagree and want you silenced. For good!