Crackdowns and Censorship in the UK

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/13/queen-elizabeth-death-protests-arrest-police/

by reillyse • 4 years ago

3 6 4 years ago

reillyse3• 4 years ago

There has also been a lot of censorship of tv shows (last week tonight got censored) and of signs held at football matches etc which have been removed from television broadcasts.

tarakat3• 4 years ago

The police crackdown on such protests has raised questions about freedom of speech during this fraught period for the United Kingdom.

Those questions were answered years ago when mean tweets [1] and nazi pugs [2] resulted in arrests. Those were not isolated cases [3]. Let's not act surprised now.

[1] https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/09/05/trolling-malicious-com...

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-43478925

[3] Two-and-a-half thousand Londoners have been arrested over the past five years for allegedly sending “offensive” messages - https://www.theregister.com/2016/06/02/social_media_arrests_...

reillyse3• 4 years ago

I'm not a free speech maximalist like many people in the US. I think many things should be against the law for people to say. Inciting violence, hate speech etc.

What concerns me about this is arbitrary use of the police and censorship to deny freedom of expression in a way that breaks no laws.

There is nothing in the UK that makes protesting the monarchy against the law. It is perfectly legal to assemble and protest the monarchy. In fact, that freedom is explicitly protected.

tarakat3• 4 years ago

State intimidation for things that are explicitly legal in the UK is also nothing new - see their police logging of "non-crime hate incidents", even for schoolchildren:

https://reclaimthenet.org/the-uks-chilling-non-crime-hate-in...

Crackdowns and Censorship in the UK

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