Fresh off the crackdown on so-called “keyboard warriors” over social media posts connected to the recent anti-mass migration riots, leading leftist politicians in Britain are beginning to demand for new speech restrictions on the internet.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose neo-liberal Labour Party government enacted some of the strictest speech laws in modern British history, has joined the chorus of commentators demanding a new crackdown on social media.
Speaking to LBC Radio this week, Blair said: “The world is going to have to come together and agree on some rules around social media platforms.
“It’s not just how people can provoke hostility and hatred but I think… the impact on young people particularly when they’ve got access to mobile phones very young and they are reading a whole lot of stuff and receiving a whole lot of stuff that I think is really messing with their minds in a big way.
“I’m not sure what the answer is but I’m sure we need to find one.”
Blair was not alone in calling for new restrictions on social media. Earlier this week, the left-wing Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle also said that the government should consider new limits against online speech.
“Misinformation is dangerous,” Hoyle said. “Social media is good but its also bad when people are using it in a way that could cause a riot, threat, intimidation, suggesting that we should attack somebody, it’s not acceptable.
“What we’ve got to do is factually correct what’s up there, if not I think the government has to think long and hard about what they are going to do about social media and what are they going to put through parliament as a bill.
“I believe it should be across, it doesn’t matter what country you are in, the fact is that misinformation is dangerous and no misinformation, or threats, or intimidation should be allowed to be carred out on social media platforms.”
Responding to Hoyle’s comments, the Free Speech Union wrote that it is “concerning to hear the Speaker of the Commons lumping ‘misinformation’ in with ‘incitement, threats and intimidation’ while talking up the need for greater cross-border censorship. Given that all statements of fact or opinion are provisional, who gets to define ‘misinformation’, and when?”