Free Speech & Cancel Culture

PayPal has shut down the account of the Free Speech Union, an organisation which defends people who have lost work for expressing opinions.

The US payments company censors were clearly offended by free speech and decided to shut down the accounts of the Free Speech Union, its founder Toby Young, and his opinion and news website the Daily Sceptic with no clear explanation. Paypal merely spouted the bollox explanations that the union had 'violated PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy'.

The Telegraph reports that a likely explanation is that the organisation has helped to defend people who claim they have lost work for expressing opinions, for example Gillian Philip, the author who said her contract was terminated because she stood up for JK Rowling on Twitter amid a row over transgender rights. It has also challenged universities that have no-platformed gender-critical academics.

Toby Young said:

I suspect it's because in reality PayPal doesn't value free expression and open dialogue or the people and organisations that stand up for those principles. Withdrawing financial services from dissidents and non-conformists and those who dare to defend them is the new frontline in the ongoing war against free speech.

The Free Speech Union will be lobbying the Government to put new laws in to prevent companies like PayPal demonetising organisations and individuals because their employees disapprove of their views.

 

Offsite article: Why has PayPal cancelled the Free Speech Union?

See article from spectator.co.uk by Toby Young

It's left me wanting to do something about this insidious new way of cancelling people. As the switch to a cashless society gathers speed, we need to put some laws in place to protect people from being punished by companies like PayPal for saying something their employees disapprove of.

 

Offsite article: Big Tech is waging financial war on dissenters

See article from spiked-online.com by Tom Slater

PayPal's banning of the Free Speech Union is its most sinister move yet.

 

Offsite article: PayPal is trying to silence us

See article from spiked-online.com by Molly Kingsley

The co-founder of UsForThem speaks out against Big Tech censorship.

A campaign group got itself offended by an Edinburgh Fringe show titled Tea Ceremony , in which a white male actor appears as a geisha.

The group British East and South East Asians working in the Theatre and Screen industry (BEATS) took issue with Tea Ceremony, which sees Marios Ioannou wear white face paint, which it claimed to be extremely triggering and traumatic to those who bear historical weight of historical abuses.

BEATS said that:

While no one wants rules at the Fringe . ..[BUT]... surely there can be guidelines to prevent what we can only describe as publicly licensed racism on stage.

However, the show's producer has rejected any accusations of racism in the show and Ioannou, a Cypriot performer, also insisted the claims were unfair. He said:

I am in contact with the Japanese people who worked on this performance, because they did work on it and they didn't believe it was inappropriate. We are working on an answer from all of us.

Nigeria has banned foreign models and voiceover artists in advertisements.

The measure, taking effect from October, will particularly mean that adverts in the African nation will no longer feature white models and British accents.

The Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria president Steve Babaeko said that Britons currently accounted for about half of models and voiceover artists in Nigerian commercials.

In January 2022, an Instagram account that describes itself as publicising British music posted a video with a short caption on its public account. The video is a 21-second clip of the music video for a UK drill music track called Secrets Not Safe by the rapper Chinx (OS). The caption tags Chinx (OS) as well as an affiliated artist and highlights that the track had just been released. The video clip shows part of the second verse of the song and fades to a black screen with the text OUT NOW. Drill is a subgenre of rap music popular in the UK, with a large number of drill artists active in London.

Shortly after the video was posted, Meta received a request from UK law enforcement to remove content that included this track. Meta says that it was informed by law enforcement that elements of it could contribute to a risk of offline harm. The company was also aware that the track referenced a past shooting in a way that raised concerns that it may provoke further violence. As a result, the post was escalated for internal review by experts at Meta.

Meta's experts determined that the content violated the Violence and Incitement policy, specifically the prohibition on coded statements where the method of violence or harm is not clearly articulated, but the threat is veiled or implicit. The Community Standards list signs that content may include veiled or implicit threats. These include content that is shared in a retaliatory context, and content with references to historical or fictional incidents of violence. Further information and/or context is always required to identify and remove a number of different categories listed at the end of the Violence and Incitement policy, including veiled threats. Meta has explained to the Board that enforcement under these categories is not subject to at-scale review (the standard review process conducted by outsourced moderators) and can only be enforced by Meta's internal teams. Meta has further explained that the Facebook Community Standards apply to Instagram.

When Meta took the content down, two days after it was posted, it also removed copies of the video posted by other accounts. Based on the information that they received from UK law enforcement, Meta's Public Policy team believed that the track might increase the risk of potential retaliatory gang violence, and acted as a threatening call to action that could contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm, including retaliatory gang violence.

Hours after the content was removed, the account owner appealed. A human reviewer assessed the content to be non-violating and restored it to Instagram. Eight days later, following a second request from UK law enforcement, Meta removed the content again and took down other instances of the video found on its platforms. The account in this case has fewer than 1,000 followers, the majority of whom live in the UK. The user received notifications from Meta both times their content was removed but was not informed that the removals were initiated following a request from UK law enforcement.

In referring this matter to the Board, Meta states that this case is particularly difficult as it involves balancing the competing interests of artistic expression and public safety. Meta explains that, while the company places a high value on artistic expression, it is difficult to determine when that expression becomes a credible threat. Meta asks the Board to assess whether, in this case and more generally, the safety risks associated with the potential instigation of gang violence outweigh the value of artistic expression in drill music.

In its decisions, the Board can issue policy recommendations to Meta. While recommendations are not binding, Meta must respond to them within 60 days. As such, the Board welcomes public comments proposing recommendations that are relevant to these cases.

Respond via article from oversightboard.com

A comedian has been cancelled by an Edinburgh Fringe venue after he got his penis out on stage and made jokes about disallowed topics on his opening night.

Jerry Sadowitz was scheduled to play at The not very pleasant Pleasance at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on Friday and Saturday.

The censorial venue confirmed that it had been pulled because his material does not align with our values.

One female audience member told the Scottish Sun that Sadowitz  called Rishi Sunak a 'paki' and said the economy was awful because it is run by blacks and women.

The event listing carried a warning which read:

This show contains strong language and themes some may find distressing.

Revealing the decision, Sadowitz said on Twitter:

Did a show last night, 75 mins, thought it went well. Didn't see any walkouts. Today I'm told my show's been cancelled. Great stuff. I'm truly sorry for everyone who travelled to see the show tonight.

Offsite Comment: They finally came for Jerry Sadowitz

15th August 2022. See article from spiked-online.com by Simon Evans

Comedians dismiss cancel culture at their peril.

A Times investigation, published this week, has found that universities across the UK have been removing the requirement, and in some cases the option, to study certain books because of their supposedly distressing content. The University of Sussex, for example, has removed August Strindberg's play, Miss Julie , from a literature module because it contains discussion of suicide.

Students at Wrexham Glyndwr University, on a module dedicated to mentoring, are being given the option to skip a book called Mentoring , because it includes "humour" that is not inclusive of people who are trans or nonbinary.

Similarly, on Nottingham Trent's French course, a French language module has removed a requirement to study satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo . It says the magazine contains racist, sexist, bigoted, Islamophobic satirical206 cartoons with strong language.

Other universities have slapped trigger warnings on Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro ('trivialised role and abuse of female characters'), Austen's Mansfield Park ('poverty, classism, sexism, mistreatment in a domestic context'), and -- in a masterstroke of dark comedy -- Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four ('contains explicit material which you may find offensive or upsetting').

See full article from spiked-online.com

  Hampshire Constabulary sent five police officers to arrest a man in Aldershot for a Facebook post containing an image that made Progress Pride flags (flags that combine the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rainbow pride flag with a chevron containing the blue, pink, and white stripes of the transgender flag) look like a swastika.

The image that the man was arrested for posting has been widely shared online by thousands of social media users, including Reclaim Party leader and free speech activist Laurence Fox, who was present when the man was arrested.

Harry Miller, a former UK police officer and chairman of the UK political party Reclaim, was also arrested for attempting to obstruct the arrest of the man who posted the transgender flag swastika.

Miller also accused the police of trying to shakedown the man during this visit by offering to downgrade the crime to a non-crime if the man agreed to pay £60 and attend a Community Awareness Course that would give him a mental toolbox that will enable him to keep out of trouble in the future.

Miller and the man were subsequently released without charge. According to Hampshire Constabulary, the man was released under investigation but it will be taking no further action against him. Miller was released under investigation but inquiries are ongoing and it's still a live investigation.

Donna Jones, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, expressed concern about the proportionality and necessity of the police's response to the incident. She said:

When incidents on social media receive not one but two visits from police officers, but burglaries and non-domestic break-ins don't always get a police response, something is wrong, Jones said. As Police Commissioner, I am committed to ensuring Hampshire Constabulary serves the public as the majority of people would expect. It appears on this occasion this has not happened.

Jones added that she will be writing to the UK College of Policing to make them aware of the incident and encourage greater clarification on the guidance in order to ensure that police forces can respond more appropriately in the future.

 

Offsite Comment: When did memes become a police matter?

2nd August 2022. See article from spiked-online.com

We need to put our dimwitted, would-be Stasi back in its box.

 

Update: Hampshire Police scraps its hate crime re-education course

7th August 2022. See article from dailymail.co.uk

Hampshire Police were revealed to have been more or less forcing people accused of online insults to attend a hate crime re-education course or else face prosecution for the insult.

Hampshire Constabulary was among three forces in the country that ran the two-hour re-educational sessions for people accused of racism, sexism, misogyny and transphobia.

The Orwellian scheme was funded out of the force's Police and Crime Commissioner's budget, but faced controversy when an  army veteran was arrested for a trivial gay pride insult which showed four LGBT pride flags positioned to make a swastika.

No doubt other victims of the police harrasmment have been forced into attending but this time around the victim had contact with friends that could generate enough publicity to get the police deservedly shamed.

Donna Jones, Tory Police Commissioner for Hampshire, said that she is ending the contract with the company which manages the programme.

Not Okay is a 2022 US comedy drama by Quinn Shephard
Starring Zoey Deutch, Dylan O'Brien and Embeth Davidtz

A misguided young woman, desperate for friends and fame, fakes a trip to Paris to update her social media presence. A terrifying incident takes place in the real world which becomes a part of the imaginary trip and offers all she wanted.

Hulu's new film Not Okay starts with a surprising disclaimer that reads:

CONTENT WARNING: This film contains flashing lights, themes of trauma, and an unlikeable female protagonist. Viewer discretion advised.

The trigger warning was added by the director, not the Disney-owned platform itself. The film's director Quinn Shepard said, while it might not be taken seriously, the warning was inspired by some very real concerns. She said:

The content warning was borne out of, to be honest, our test screenings.

We un-ironically and consistently got responses from -- I'm not going to say what demographic, but you might be able to guess -- people who were quite literally like, 'Why would someone make a movie with an unlikable woman?' It's something I've repeatedly heard, and a lot of my other writer friends have as well. If you portray flawed women or women who reflect societal flaws, you get notes like, 'I literally don't understand why you tell a story about this character.'

Thor: Love and Thunder is a 2022 Australia/US film by Taika Waititi
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Christian Bale

Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct.

A few people who have watched the film since its release last week are alerting their Twitter followers to the fact the scenes showing Jane's cancer treatments could be triggering to those who have either gone through it themselves, or have known someone to have gone through it. One tweeted:

No spoilers, but Thor: Love and Thunder SHOULD have had a trigger warning for graphic depiction of cancer and the fact that we didn't know going in is atrocious.

The BBFC doesn't mention this particular trigger in its short description often reserved for trigger warning, but does mention the distressing scenes in its long rating information. The BBFC passed the film 12A for moderate fantasy violence, injury detail, threat, horror, sex references.