News round-up: Ireland restricts free speech, Musk defends his own and Pakistan shuts down the internet
News round-up: Ireland restricts free speech, Musk defends his own and Pakistan shuts down the internet
Every week, Freedom Research's editorial team puts together a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what feel like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.
In the past week these stories caught our attention: Ireland's tightening 'hate speech' law, Elon Musk defending his freedom of speech, internet disruption in Pakistan, a WHO warning on myocardial infarction in neonates and young infants, and the fact that the publications that won the prestigious journalism prize for Trump's Russian-connections story, which has now been overturned, still feel the award was justified.
Ireland restricts freedom of expression
Ireland is about to adopt a new "hate speech law". The law on incitement to violence and hate speech and hate crime will be tightened up, and the new regime is about to make incitement to hatred punishable by a fine or up to five years of prison. A draft of the law states that any person will be punished if he or she produces or possesses material likely to incite hatred against another person or a group of persons protected under the same law. Race and colour, nationality and descent, religion, sexual orientation, disability and sex are listed as protected characteristics. Gender, according to the draft, means both the sex that a person actually has and the sex that a person has chosen and identifies with. In other words, transgender persons are singled out as a separate protected group. It also appears that the presumption of innocence does not fully apply in the case of the draft and that the accused would have to first prove their innocence, at least in some cases. In particular, the text of the draft states that if the accused is proven to be in possession of material inciting to hatred, it is reasonable to presume that it was not intended only for private use, unless one is able to prove the opposite.
The draft is seen by many as a very serious threat to freedom of expression and has been publicly criticised, for example, by major entrepreneur and investor Elon Musk, as well as by Donald Trump Jr, son of former US President Donald Trump, and prominent Canadian freethinker and clinical psychologist Jordan B. Peterson.
At the end of April, the law was passed by the Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament, and is now awaiting the approval by the upper house. Under current plans, this should take place by the beginning of the summer.
Washington Post, New York Times won't give up a Pulitzer they got on a lie
On Monday, US Special Counsel John Durham's report came out saying that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had no evidence of any so-called Russian ties to Donald Trump, or any reason to open an investigation into Trump's 2016 presidential campaign in July that year. Yet the investigation was launched at the time and the press took the issue very seriously in the following years. The world's major publications published a succession of voluminous 'exposés' of Trump's 'Russian connections', based largely on material compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele. The Washington Post (WaPo) and The New York Times (NYT) won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for their work on the subject. That Steele's dossier, commissioned by the Democrats, was actually full of lies, is now a long known fact. Now, with the recent Durham report reconfirming that it was a fabrication that played a major role in the circulation of some of the world's most prestigious newspapers, there are calls in the US for the WaPo and NYT awards to be withdrawn. However, at least one WaPo spokesperson rejected such a suggestion, saying that they still stand by what they have published in their articles.
New Twitter chief advised Musk to rein in his tweeting
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter and Tesla, has announced the appointment of Linda Yaccarino, former head of advertising sales at NBC Universal, as Twitter's new CEO. In addition, Ms Yaccarino is the chairman of a taskforce at the World Economic Forum (WEF) – an organization talking a lot about preventing the spread of "misinformation" (in other words restricting free speech) and the need for mass data collection on people.
Yaccarino advised Musk to exercise a bit of self-censorship and to make sure that companies buying advertising on Twitter feel they have some influence over the platform. Musk thought it was perfectly acceptable for advertisers to have a say in where their ads appear. "But it is not cool to try to say what Twitter will do and if that means losing advertising dollars, we lose it, but freedom of speech is paramount," he said.
Musk is clearly not engaging in self-censorship either – a few days ago he called billionaire George Soros, who supports left-wing ideology, and the groups that promote it, Magneto – the bad guy from the X-Men film series. Musk criticised Soros, saying, among other things, that Soros hates humanity. As expected, he was criticised for this, but in response he said it was his opinion. And if he loses money because of his opinions, for example, he will accept it.
As for Ms Yaccarino, she was also criticised for being an ardent advocate of masking and vaccines during the 'peak' of the pandemic. Musk said Yaccarino should be given time before being judged on her commitment to free speech.
In Pakistan, the internet was switched off. Where else has this been done?
The arrest of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday last week sparked widespread protests and unrest in the country. In response, the authorities decided to cut off mobile internet services in the country and ban access to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Similar tactics have been used in Pakistan on 12 previous occasions – five due to protests, one related to elections and six to general political confrontation in the country. However, the highest number of internet disconnections has taken place in India. Out of a total of 108 recorded cases, 83 were related to protests. To see where else the authorities have used similar tactics, see the map published by Statista.
The World Health Organization issued an alert due to neonatal myocarditis
The United Kingdom has alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) to an increased number of cases of severe myocarditis, or heart muscle inflammation, in neonates and infants, according to a statement released on Wednesday, 17th of May. Since June last year, 28 newborns have been officially diagnosed with the said ailment, seven of whom have required intensive care and one of whom has died. The report attributes the higher number of cases to enterovirus, but says the increase in myocarditis cases from it is unusual. Covid vaccines which are associated with myocardial infarction and the so-called Pfizer documents that revealed how the vaccine could have been passed on to children through placenta or breast milk, are not mentioned in the WHO announcement. However, it is acknowledged that one of the causes of myocarditis may be a reaction to a drug.