After cracking down on so-called “keyboard warriors” for posts on social media related to the recent riots against mass migration, top leftist leaders in Britain are now calling for more limits on speech on the internet.
Tony Blair, who used to be Prime Minister of Britain and led the neoliberal Labour Party that passed some of the toughest speech laws in recent British history, has joined the chorus of people calling for a new crackdown on social media.
Blair told LBC Radio this week, “The world needs to agree on some rules for social media sites.”
Not only do people find it easy to anger and hate others, but I also think that the effects on young people, especially those who get cell phones at a young age and read and receive a lot of content, are really altering their minds in a big way.
“I am not sure what the answer is, but I know we need to find it.”
This wasn’t the only person who wanted more rules. The Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who is on the left, also said earlier this week that the government should think about new rules against speech online.
It’s bad to spread false information, Hoyle said. “Social media is good, but it’s also bad when people use it to disrupt public order, make threats, scare others, or suggest that we should attack someone. That’s not okay.”
“We need to make sure that what’s up there is based on facts. If it isn’t, I think the government needs to give some serious thought to what they are going to do concerning social media and what they are going to introduce as a bill in parliament.”
It shouldn’t matter what country you’re in; spreading false information is dangerous, and it shouldn’t be possible for people to do that on social media.
The Free Speech Union responded to Hoyle’s words by saying that it was “concerning to hear the Speaker of the Commons grouping misinformation in with incitement, threats and bullying while talking up the need for more cross-border censorship. Who gets to decide what “misinformation” is?”
