In this engaging Triggernometry interview, Lord Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union, discusses the UK’s Online Safety Act and its implications for free speech.
He traces the Act’s origins to a moral panic over children’s exposure to harmful online content like self-harm sites and pornography, initially introduced under Theresa May’s government and expanded under Boris Johnson.
Young criticizes it as overly broad, leading to excessive content removal by platforms fearing massive fines or jail time for executives. He highlights how it has resulted in age-gating innocuous material, such as speeches on grooming gangs or historical blog posts, under the guise of child protection, while failing to include robust free speech safeguards.
Why Britain Arrests 30 People EVERY DAY For Speech
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Watch the full episode with Lord Toby Young @toadmeister, right here on X. pic.twitter.com/qOcoC1siuX
Young argues this creates a chilling effect, with companies over-censoring to comply, and expresses concern that the Labour government, under figures like Peter Kyle, will strengthen it further rather than repeal it.
Young warns of broader threats to free expression, including over 30 daily arrests for speech offenses and a quarter-million non-crime hate incidents recorded in recent years, often for online posts challenging government narratives on immigration or gender issues.
He discusses risks to anonymity and encrypted apps like WhatsApp, potential blasphemy law revivals via anti-Islamophobia measures, and new employment laws that could ban “banter” in workplaces to prevent perceived harassment.
Emphasizing the Free Speech Union’s role in defending cases—primarily gender-critical women—he notes a surge in membership since Labour’s election, underscoring growing public unease.
Overall, Young portrays the UK as sliding toward authoritarian censorship, prioritizing “safety” over liberty and stifling open debate.
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….. which translates as a unknown proportion of the 7,000 totally intimidated individuals terrified to open their mouths and admit they agree with the other 30.
Censorship does not just extend to alleged rudeness, it extends to honest opinion-sharing and debate too, but ONLY in relation to the White indigenous populations. Perhaps, you believe that third world immigrants should be exempt from censorship no matter how rude. their opinions and comments are. Do you?
“Why Britain Arrests 30 People EVERY DAY For Speech”
Because there are roughly only one in every 7,000 people a year that are stupid enough in Britain to say something really offensive. In other words, Britain is a very civilised place. Obviously, this Toby Young must feel that there should be more rudeness, so he invites insults to his person. Or something like that.
You certainly never received any academic awards.
Because native brits are useless and allow this rubbish to happen, thats why. A government is supposed to fear its people, not the other way around. Authors of their own destruction just like the cherokee nation were which led to their destruction. They capitulated too and even owned 4k black slaves but ignore that and only pay attention to their victim hood.
Just use a virtual private network to make comments. We all know there’s nothing stopping a VPN from selling your data but the service would suffer financially if word got out your data was going to big brother.