Celia Walden
Why Angela Rayner is right and Nigel Farage is wrong about freedom of speech
The Online Safety Act is about safeguarding, not censorship. The Reform leader’s opposition to it is a moral and political blunder
That’s Ms Walden crossed off the list of the perceptive then.
And yes, by the way, the trade she accuses us of is one I would not only take but insist upon. Dick pics, porn and online bullying are costs and they’re costs that are worth it to have freedom of speech – that basic freedom upon which all of our other liberties rest.
She’s married to Piers Morgan, so I wouldn’t trust her to operate a light switch safely.
Who is this poor Richard Pics chap, that gets sent everywhere ?
@Ottokring: I think he’s French, Richard Piques.
“The Online Safety Act is about ensuring that children and adults are protected from harmful and illegal online content, such as pornography or material that encourages suicide.”
Which are easily avoided by adults and can be easily blocked for kids.
“It’s about holding unscrupulous tech companies to account and belatedly trying to make up for our own shocking failures. Because for decades we’ve behaved like kids in a sweet shop, so delighted by what Molly Russell’s father called “the streams of life-sucking content” that we allowed them to become unregulated torrents – and to take the lives of teenagers like her.”
The “tech companies” that she’s probably thinking of (Google, Meta) already try and stop this. Because they’re for normies. The odd thing unfortunately slips through, but this isn’t going to make any difference because they’re already trying to stop it.
And the idea of someone’s daughter dying is tragic, but I don’t actually believe that any content shifts people much. We are not blank slates. Mental health is mostly biological, with a large genetic component to it. Which is why number of suicides 15-24 has barely changed much.
“We enabled men like Nicholas Hawkes, a 39-year-old from Essex, who sent multiple photos of his erect penis to a 15-year-old girl (and was the first person to be convicted of the new offence of cyber-flashing, created by the Online Safety Act). As platforms fuelled an epidemic of male violence, we stood by and did nothing. So, when in 2019 an “Online Harms White Paper” began to be developed, with the aim of making “the UK the safest place in the world to be online”, it was generally agreed to be a good idea.”
This is another one of those redundant bits of legislation because we already had laws about indecent communications and sharing pornography with minors that cover this. And a lawyer could probably name a few more laws that would cover this.
Also, how the fuck is anyone “online bullied”? Block people. The biggest bullying problem is school. Kids do not get a right to not go. It’s not like a sports club or like going to work, where you quit and go elsewhere. Lowering the school age to 14 would probably do more to cut teenage suicides. But oh no, we can’t go changing the expensive glorified babysitting. Women want to dress up for their fake jobs.
Fifteen, maybe twenty, years ago I might have been surprised to hover over that link and learn the quote was from the Telegraph.
Anyway, these are the people who think it’s a good idea to put rapists in to women’s prison and dismiss anyone who complains as right wing or in the case of women TERFs. The sooner drivel like this puts an end to the Telegraph, and all MSM for that matter, the better.
That’s Ms Walden crossed off the list of the perceptive then.
She was never on it.
And her tedious piece is a staple of many female columnists – ‘what about the children?’
The Western Bloke pretty much nails it. The also excellent Marius points out she is the other half of the truly appalling Piers Morgan. Morgan should be serving a lengthy prison sentence for his pushing of the deadly COVID vaccines and lockdown. The fact Walden was an accomplice in these utterances means she should really be still in the slammer.
I’d also say that anyone saying ‘it’s about the children’ is likely to be a very bad faith actor indeed. A shocking article, and confirms the Telegraph shifting well to the Left of North Korea politically.
Lest we forget, Piers Moron was fired as editor of the mirror for publishing fake photos of British Army soldiers abusing Iraqis: https://archive.ph/kIDdR
We don’t have freedom of speech anyway, not whilst the Batley schoolteacher is in hiding.
Very few people even want to talk about that case – that is how bad freedom of speech is.
What I find interesting is that the people pretending to be enthusiastic about protecting children are also keen to make us all join in with their “can’t see anything here, not listening” club when it comes to the Pakistani Muslim rape and torture gangs…
The Online Safety Act won’t stop people being sent dick pics. It will stop them *LOOKING* *FOR* dick pics.
What a dumb whore.
We obviously have freedom of speech in this country because Sir Keir Starmer keeps telling everybody we have freedom of speech in this country, and have had for a very long time…..
Meanwhile, back in the real world, plod arrest 30 people a day for comments made online.
‘who sent multiple photos of his erect penis to a 15-year-old girl’
Gamecock thinks Telegraph posting this is a violation of the Online Safety Act. Arrest her.
‘Erect penis?’ Cirrusly?