{"id":1488898,"date":"2024-09-09T22:55:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T02:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1488898"},"modified":"2024-09-09T22:55:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T02:55:00","slug":"the-blair-witch-project-former-uk-pm-calls-for-global-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/the-blair-witch-project-former-uk-pm-calls-for-global-censorship\/1488898\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blair Witch Project: Former UK PM Calls For Global Censorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blair Witch Project: Former UK PM Calls For Global Censorship<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Jonathan Turley,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In the 1999 cult classic\u00a0The Blair Witch Project<\/em>, one character tells his friends \u201cI could help you, but I\u2019d rather stand here and record.\u201d<\/strong><\/em> For free speech advocates, we often feel that other citizens have become passive observers as an anti-free speech movement grows around us, threatening our \u201cindispensable right<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most infamous figures in this movement has been former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has long been the smiling face of censorship.<\/strong> As the head of the Labour Party, Blair pushed through some of the early crackdowns on free speech in the United Kingdom. He is now calling for global censorship to expand these efforts.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In an interview on\u00a0LBC Radio, Blair declared:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world is going to have to come together and agree on some rules around social media platforms.<\/strong> It\u2019s not just how people can provoke hostility and hatred but I think\u2026 the impact on young people particularly when they\u2019ve 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.<\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u00a0recently discussed<\/a>\u00a0how the UK is already using recent rioting to crackdown further on those with opposing or \u201ctoxic\u201d views.<\/p>\n

For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A man was\u00a0convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers<\/a>. Another was arrested for an\u00a0anti-police t-shirt.<\/a>\u00a0Another was arrested for\u00a0calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a \u201cleprechaun.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Yet another was arrested for\u00a0singing \u201cKung Fu Fighting.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0A teenager was arrested for\u00a0protesting outside of a Scientology center<\/a>\u00a0with a sign calling the religion a \u201ccult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire<\/a>. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his \u201ctoxic ideology\u201d based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire.<\/p>\n

While most of us find Brock\u2019s views repellent and hateful, they were confined to his head and his room. Yet, Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement: \u201cI do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lodder lambasted Brock for holding Nazi and other hateful values:<\/p>\n

\u201c[i]t is clear that you are a right-wing extremist, your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography which you have studied and appeared to share with others\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though Lodder agreed that the defendant was older, had limited mobility, and \u201cthere was no evidence of disseminating to others,\u201d he still sent him to prison for holding extremist views.<\/p>\n

After the sentencing Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), warned others that he was going to prison because he \u201cshowed a clear right-wing ideology with the evidence seized from his possessions during the investigation\u2026.We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blair\u2019s views have been echoed by Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle who\u00a0declared:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMisinformation is dangerous. Social media is good but its also bad when people are using it in a way that could cause a riot, threat, intimidation,<\/strong> suggesting that we should attack somebody, it\u2019s not acceptable. What we\u2019ve got to do is factually correct what\u2019s 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it should be across, it doesn\u2019t 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 carried out on social media platforms.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As with the\u00a0effort in Brazil to block X<\/a>\u00a0entirely for refusing to censor political opponents of the government, Blair\u2019s call for global censorship is where the movement is going next.<\/p>\n

Notably, after Musk purchased Twitter, Hillary Clinton\u00a0called upon European officials<\/a>\u00a0to force him to censor American citizens under the infamous Digital Services Act (DSA). <\/strong>Recently, Democratic leaders like Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison praised Brazil for its action to prevent citizens from having access to unfettered news sources.<\/p>\n

Interviews like the one with Tony Blair are not just meant to intimidate or scare others. They reflect a comprehensive campaign from our political elite to enforce censorship on a national and transnational scale.<\/strong> If you think that this latest Blair Witch Project is just another scary production, you have not been paying attention.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the author of \u201cThe Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 09\/09\/2024 – 18:55<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/blair-witch-project-former-uk-pm-calls-global-censorship<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Blair Witch Project: Former UK PM Calls For Global Censorship Authored by Jonathan Turley, In the 1999 cult classic\u00a0The Blair Witch Project, one character…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1488899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1488898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1488898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1488899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1488898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1488898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1488898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}