How much easier would it be for the government to monitor your mobiles, constantly scanning for hate crime

If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, or so goes the old adage. All the while your country's government is benign, I suppose that may be true, but when it adopts an altogether more authoritarian stripe, what then?

I ask having just read an article at BBC News reporting that Apple will be introducing technology allowing them to scan pictures being uploaded to iCloud. The technology is to be used with the very best of intentions, attempting as it does to prevent the circulation of illegal and sickening images.

The worry however is how such technology will be used in the future. If Apple's scanning system works there will be a good many governments who will insist the technology is made available to them, to allow them monitor their own populations. China is an obvious example of a country that would adopt such a system when it becomes available (assuming they're not already doing so), but one does not have to look too far to find other countries that would find this technology useful.

Take Scotland for example. In March 2021 the devolved government passed the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill. The Bill creates a new crime of stirring up hatred against certain protected groups, which is defined as behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, or communicating threatening or abusive material to another person.

It has been argued that the definition of stirring up hatred is too vague and open to interpretation and will have a chilling effect on free speech.

Furthermore, offences can now be committed even in private, and there are many who believe this is an example of interference in private and family life. To quote from the BBC article,

Why should any government, they ask, decide what can and can't be said in the privacy of one's home?

Rather than having to rely on friends and family to dob in transgressors, how much easier would it be for the government to monitor your computers and mobiles, constantly scanning for hate crime.

In such circumstances, and fearing one could be accused of stirring up hate, no one would dare speak out against the prevailing left-wing orthodoxies. That really would be the end of critical thought and free speech.

19th August 2021

#freespeech #politics

The Magical Power of Words

Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

No, not a recent headline, but a quote from the Bible, referring to God's infallibility. The same quote could however, be applied to a certain Royal couple, and their recent interview. There is something akin to religious fervour in the way their supporters accept as gospel every word they utter. Of course, once they invoked the magical words racism and mental health, who would dare question them?

Once those words were uttered all discussion on the matter was brought to an end. The words are the truth and one cannot dispute them. Her truth is the truth. Any attempt to question what has been uttered, and one is caste out into the wilderness, a pariah, a non-believer to be shunned.

The situation is utterly ridiculous. There are always (at least) two sides to any disagreement. If she had suffered racist abuse or mental health problems, then she has every right to seek help and assistance. However if in making those allegations she impugns the character of individuals and institutions, then one has every right to raise questions. Can you imagine a situation if the same standards were applied to Boris Johnson or Mike Hancock when questioned about their handling of the pandemic? Would we simply accept their word as truth?

11th March 2021

#freespeech

I have yet to see a single article questioning why adherents of Islam believe they are justified in butchering innocent citizens

French citizens, having been butchered in Paris and Nice, the media is picking over arguments about what France has done wrong, how it has incited the violence we now see. I have though yet to see a single article questioning why adherents of Islam believe they are justified in butchering innocent citizens. Where is the article asking whether such a religion has a place in modern society?

France has a long history of secularism, going back to the post-Revolutionary period. The laws apply to all citizens, whatever their religious beliefs, so why should France be expected to make an exception for Islam? Why should they be expected to treat Islam with any more respect than they do Christianity? And if they make an exception for Islam on the subject of satirical cartoons, what comes next? Fundamentalist Islam treats women as second class citizens; will all women be required to walk behind their husband, for fear of upsetting the Islamic community?

If you want to believe in God, if you want to follow a particular religious doctrine, that is entirely your right, and that right should be protected. However, in a secular society, whether it is France or Britain, when the religious beliefs come into conflict with state laws, then the state laws must always take primacy. The right to freedom of speech is a basic tenet of a free society, and that includes the right to satirise and question any and all religions. If that means the publication of what you consider to be offensive cartoons, then so be it. After all it is that very same freedom that allows you to practise your religion in peace.

Vive la France.

1st November 2020

#freespeech #politics #terrorism

His call to “crush” those who oppose his views has chilling echoes of Lenin's call to hang the enemies of the Revolution

Owen Jones argues on Twitter with reference to the far right that the “debate will be between those who believe they should be ... listened to and those of us who think they must be crushed”.

Who is the “far right”? As far as I can gather it's anyone OJ believes disagrees with his view of leftist liberalism. Either you accept his dogma, or you are the opposition

His call to “crush” those who oppose his views has chilling echoes of Lenin and his call to hang the enemies of the Revolution. His statement simply highlights the fact that Communists are no different to Fascists. Both will intimidate, both will use violence, both will terrorise those deemed to be the enemy.

31st July 2018

#freespeech #politics

Now we live in a country where even a harmless joke can be deemed a “hate crime”

How on earth has this happened? The UK is, according to the 2018 World Press Freedom Index,

One of the worst-ranked countries in Western Europe in terms of respect for press freedom.

The UK is placed 40th in the world. The home of Parliament, the country whose very name was a byword for freedom of expression. Now we live in a country where even a harmless joke can be deemed a “hate crime”, where important issues cannot be debated for fear of being branded “phobic”.

In an era when it seems someone will take offence at anything, maybe the best bet is to say nothing.

26th April 2018

#democracy #freespeech #politics #society