Tag Archives: Free Speech

“Dr. Ridd, a marine scientist with extensive experience on the Great Barrier Reef, was dismissed by Cook University for questioning the popular view that the Great Barrier Reef is endangered.”

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“Should a scientist with over 30 years working on the Great Barrier Reef be able to say that work coming from other reef science organisations was subject to insufficient quality assurance, and was thus not trustworthy? Or should he be fired because it was discourteous and disrespectful?”

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When faced with the full hearing of a lawsuit, however, the City of Edinburgh Council folded on their decision and apologized to the ministry, admitting they were wrong to cancel the event based on the beliefs of the keynote speaker.

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“I don’t know what to do,” one council employee told Caldron Pool. “I feel like I’m being forced to do something that is not related to my role. It’s not that I don’t like gay people (it’s sad I need to clarify that), but social issues shouldn’t be forced through work channels that have nothing to do with the job.”

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Dr Randall, with the support of the Christian Legal Centre, is taking Trent College to court for discrimination, harassment, victimisation and unfair dismissal.

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“So here is my mea culpa on free speech, I was wrong to ever defend it.”

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The program allegedly described the pandemic as an event “planned” by the “deep state,” and labelled the vaccines as a “sinister” means of implanting “nanochips.”

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Australian politician, Craig Kelly’s Facebook page has been suspended over five quotes he’d posted in February.

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The line between inciting hate or violence and informing others about that hate and violence is being blurred. Facebook’s recent heavy-handed actions against Caldron Pool, and Caldron Pool contributor, Evelyn Rae, suggest that the social media platform is happy to unfairly conflate reporting or fair criticism of an event with endorsement of that event. There is a difference between advocacy and commentary. If we apply descriptive and prescriptive linguistics to how newsworthy events or commentary are presented, we can see that companies like Facebook will inevitably hurt their customer base, because they continue to blur the descriptive and the prescriptive,…

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A Victorian MP is pushing to broaden the state’s anti-vilification laws in an effort to crack down on unapproved speech. Victorian upper house MP Fiona Patten, leader of the Reason Party — formerly known as the Sex Party — proposed the amendments to the Racial and Religious Tolerance Bill 2001 to include gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. The changes would also include substituting “race” with “protected attribute” and substituting “incites” with “likely to incite hatred against, serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule of, that person or class of persons.” According to Patten, “Hate speech…

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Israel Folau has been found guilty of a “high-level breach” of Rugby Australia’s code of conduct after posting a graphic on his Instagram account paraphrasing 1 Corinthians 6:9. The three-day Code of Conduct hearing wrapped up in Sydney today, although the three-person panel presiding over the hearing is yet to consider Folau’s punishment for his public display of Christianity. According to a statement from Rugby Australia: “The panel has today provided a judgment that Israel Folau committed a high-level breach of the Professional Players’ Code of Conduct with his social media posts on April 10, 2019. “The panel will now…

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This is near prophetic! A decade ago, Hitchens perfectly predicted how accusations of “Islamophobia” will be used to control the people and let “barbarians take over the city.” “This is very urgent business, ladies and gentlemen,” Hitchens said. “I beseech you, resist it while you still can. And before the right to complain will be taken away from you – which will be the next thing. “You’ll be told you can’t complain because you’re ‘Islamophobic.’ The term is already being introduced into the culture as if it was an accusation of race-hatred… The barbarians never take a city until someone…

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Political correctness in its excessive form is the secular equivalent of Shari’a law. It might not have the full judicial weight of Western law behind it yet, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t trying to manipulate the system so as to implement it. I used to think that the only thing wrong with political correctness was the excesses that went along with it. Take the good, reject the bad. However, the more I learn from those who practice and enforce the ideals of political correctness, the more I arrive at the conclusion that political correctness is the secular version of…

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Laura Loomer has been permanently banned from Twitter after she criticised Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. According to Twitter, Loomer was suspended for violating the platforms rules against “hateful conduct.” The offending tweet read: “Isn’t it ironic how the twitter moment used to celebrate ‘women, LGBTQ, and minorities’ is a picture of Ilhan Omar? Ilhan is pro Sharia, Ilhan is pro-FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). Under Sharia, homosexuals are oppressed and killed. Women are abused & forced to wear the hijab. Ilhan is anti-Jewish…” Update: Just spoke with her. Here is the message @LauraLoomer received from Twitter following her permanent suspension pic.twitter.com/v7mynI3HV4…

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What’s with our overly-sensitive universities sheltering adults from ideas and opinions they may find offensive? And more importantly, what sort of effect will it have on their students, not only during their time at university but once they enter the real world. Jordan Peterson once rightly said, “It’s hard to make people safe because life is seriously not safe. The way that you make people resilient is by exposing them to the things that they’re afraid of and that make them uncomfortable, voluntarily, but you use exposure. “If you over coddle people, if you protect them from everything that’s sharp,…

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Jordan B Peterson has described the United Kingdom’s assault on free speech as “terrifying,” warning there are consequences to criminalising speech that are worse than we can imagine. In a segment hosted by BBC Question Time, the Canadian professor warned: “There are increasing restrictions put on people’s ability to speak forthrightly and the consequences of that restriction and the criminalisation of what hypothetically constitutes as offensive speech is going to be a cure that’s so much more worse than the disease that we can hardly imagine it…” WATCH:

By no means is this a conclusive run down on what I see as the need to find, and advocate for, a fair use of the vehicles we choose to communicate, and receive information through.  By pointing out inconsistencies, and connecting them to a possible cause, my purpose here is primarily an attempt to suggest, that when it comes to social media, we practice the proverb of looking before we leap. A few years back an incident showed me the contrast between hard reality, and cheap comment. Comments from people, who in the comfort of relative security, only seem to be far more concerned with the side of the story that sells best, than with finding balance. Surely,…

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In the debate about whether we create or discover a writing voice, it doesn’t matter which side of the camp you land on. It’s generally agreed that a writing voice takes time to develop. When I started a blog in 2013, I had no real idea how it would develop. My plan was to use the blog as a way of networking, and as a way of improving my own writing skills. In my post-graduate world, I wasn’t sure a blog would achieve either. Looking back, I can see areas where I’ve succeeded, and I can also see areas where…

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Facebook have unpublished Senator Fraser Anning’s official page claiming “recent activity doesn’t follow the Facebook Pages Terms.” The move comes after the Senator shared a video suggesting a ban on Muslim immigration would help to ensure the peace and safety of Australians. “Facebook has just taken the unprecedented step in unpublishing a Commonwealth Politician’s page,” Senator Anning said on Twitter. “Free speech is under attack, and communication is being regulated by foreign companies with tendencies of political bias.” “This is completely unacceptable and we will fight this,” the Senator added. Facebook has just taken the unprecedented step in unpublishing a…

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UK police have urged the public to report ‘non-crime’ incidents in an effort to stop non-criminal comments from hurting the feelings of those affected. The message sent out by the official Twitter account of South Yorkshire Police said, “In addition to reporting hate crime, please report non-crime hate incidents, which can include things like offensive or insulting comments, online, in person or in writing.” “Hate will not be tolerated in South Yorkshire,” the department said. “Report it and put a stop to it #HateHurtsSY” The tweet which has prompted thousands of angry responses, comes after it was revealed South Yorkshire…

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20/21