Starmer Once Defended Free Speech But Now Jailing People For Tweets

by Didi Rankovich | Reclaim The Net

In the past, UK’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer was among those expressing concern for free speech on the internet and how a law that results in fines and arrests because of social media posts could have “a chilling effect on free speech.”

Right now, his government is carrying out mass arrests of people who get convicted for precisely that reason: the things they’ve said on the internet.

But back in 2012, speaking about the Communications Act 2003 and its section 127, Starmer was worried about the law resulting in “a lot of prosecutions” – even though his comments overall can hardly be interpreted as coming from a strong advocate for freedom of expression.

Referring to what is considered “grossly offensive messages” and criminalization of communications of that nature, Starmer wanted to see what he called a high threshold for people’s right to be offensive and insulting.

That, he said, needed to be protected. Otherwise, a large number of prosecutions would have “a chilling effect on free speech, and I think that’s a very important consideration,” Starmer told the BBC.

According to him, the criminal offense here was “overarching,” hence the fear that it would apply to the type of communications he mentioned, and if the only response was a criminal one, he warned, “there might be the temptation to resort too quickly to that response.” Read Full Article >