‘If we are living in a country where you cannot report the truth, we are living under a dictator.’
Adam Brooks warns of government censorship as Labour announces a social media crackdown 'in times of crisis' after the Belfast unrest.
We owe those who serve the UK the kit to do the job and the loyalty to stand by them when it's done. We are failing on both.
I’ve spent my whole time in government making that case. Number 10 will not listen, so I am resigning as Minister for the Armed Forces.
Letter to the PM below.🫡🫡🫡⬇️⬇️
📣🚨 A victory for the Free Speech Union.
South Wales Police have shelved their plans to continue with their own bespoke Islamic blasphemy law.
The force have U-turned on their instruction to officers to record any conversation that goes beyond “legitimate” discussion of Islam.
This would have seen police officers becoming the judges of what is acceptable speech about Islam in a country that abolished blasphemy laws back in 2002.
The Free Speech Union threatened the force with judicial review should it not withdraw the guidance.
Credit must also be given to Shadow Equalities Minister @ClaireCoutinho, who referred the force to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young, said: “Blasphemy laws were repealed in this country 18 years ago, and we will do everything in our power to stop them being brought back by the back door.”
Let this be a warning to all other public bodies — particularly police forces — that wish to introduce their own censorious “anti-Muslim hostility” definition that would suppress our right to free speech and our ability to criticise a religion.
Read more below in @Telegraph 👇
This is what the UK spyware proposal means.
There must be government spyware on every mobile device. It shall watch everything that happens, including always watching the screen, looking for things the government disapproves of.
When anything is flagged by the software as something the government doesn't like, the software must block it from being sent or displayed (in realtime).
The user of the device must not be able to shut this watching and blocking off. The only way to shut it off would be to ask the government or its proxies to do so for you, at their discretion.
Therefore the whole device must be locked down. Administrator rights and the decision of what software or operating system to run or not to run must be taken from the owner/user and handed to the government and its proxies.
Apple and Google are themselves working hard to lock down the devices they are involved in to shut out competition and establish a duopoly.
The UK government says it is "working closely" with Apple and Google and currently they synchronise and coordinate their communication on this subject.
The UK government is now proposing to mandate what would otherwise be illegal anti-competitive practices.
@GrapheneOS on the Apple and Google duopoly:
https://t.co/rbRmcUDTRu
Statement from @signalapp
https://t.co/vJILcSrs4s
@ReclaimTheNetHQ on the state spyware:
https://t.co/3FCi06bP77
The government announcement:
https://t.co/ynYjR3DIRo
Ending anonymity. Expanding speech bans. State-ordered takedowns. These are pillars of the Internet in China, Russia, and Iran.
Increasingly, they have become features of European policy. In @ForeignAffairs, @JMchangama examines how Europe lost the plot on online speech.