News Round-Up: Public Letter Warning of Deepening Censorship, Wind Farms Endangering Eagles and Labor Plan to Jail People for Misgendering Someone
News Round-Up: Public Letter Warning of Deepening Censorship, Wind Farms Endangering Eagles and Labor Plan to Jail People for Misgendering Someone
Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.
Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:
British Labour Party would jail people for misgendering someone.
Australia: wind farms are killing eagles at an alarming rate.
A public letter to the British Prime Minister warns of the consequences of deepening censorship.
US judge sends a pro-Donald Trump meme-maker to prison.
Pfizer once again lowers Covid sales expectations: people don't want vaccines, Covid drug.
British Labour Party would jail people for misgendering someone
If Labour were to form the next UK government, anyone who, for example, deliberately calls a man who thinks he is a woman a man could face jail time, reports The Daily Mail. In other words, Labour would allow tougher sentences for crimes against so-called transgender people, i.e. those who identify themselves differently from their biological sex. This would mean that attacks motivated by hatred of the victim's gender identity would be 'aggravated offenses'. This would bring so-called transphobic abuse into line with assault and harassment motivated by hatred on the grounds of race or religion.
It is important to note, however, that it is not only crimes of physical violence that are at issue here, but also people's use of language. In particular, the proposed amendment would allow for the possibility of punishing people who misgender a person and call someone by the 'wrong' gender pronoun. So in other words, in the future under the Labor government, it would be possible to go to jail for two years if you refuse to call a man who says he is a woman, a woman.
The issue of so-called transgenderism has been a hot topic in the British public sphere in recent weeks. Of course, it is not just a linguistic issue of how to call someone, but people who claim to be of a different gender than their biological one are also claiming all sorts of other special rights. In particular, there has long been a problem with men who identify as women wanting to use, for example, women's spaces, be they toilets, changing rooms, hospital wards, etc. For example, in last week's news round-up, we described how in recent years, British police have registered male rapists as women or as no gender at all, because the perpetrators chose to identify as such. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, under UK law, rape can only be committed by a man, so obviously these men are hoping for a lighter sentence. But the second reason may be that they want to go to a women's prison to serve their sentence – as happened in Scotland with the case of a rapist who now calls himself a woman named Isla Bryson. He was sent to a women's prison at first, but after widespread protests, the decision was changed and he has to serve his 8-year sentence in a male prison.
While Labour wants to promote trans ideology, the ruling Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, want to put the brakes on it. Mr Sunak, speaking at the Conservative Congress two weeks ago, said that people should not be bullied on gender issues. "We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t. A man is a man and a woman is a woman, that’s just common sense," he said. His government has also implemented various common-sense policies to counter such trans-ideological pressure.
The Labourist plan was also commented on by J.K. Rowling, the well-known author of the Harry Potter stories, who as a women's rights activist has been under constant attack from trans ideologues. "I'll happily do two years if the alternative is compelled speech and forced denial of the reality and importance of sex. Bring on the court case, I say. It'll be more fun than I've ever had on a red carpet," she posted on social media platform X.
Australia: wind farms are killing eagles at an alarming rate
Data from the Australian state of Tasmania shows that onshore wind farms are a major threat to the local eagle population, injuring and killing large numbers of birds, according to a recent article in Australian Field Ornithology, The Daily Sceptic writes. For example, it is estimated that only 1,000 wedge-tailed eagles remain in the area, but at least 270 birds have been killed or injured in the vicinity of wind farms in the last 12 years. However, there may be many more deaths since the information on fatalities is not readily available.
In addition, at least 49 white-bellied sea eagles, also protected and vulnerable, have been killed during the same period.
Of course, the fact that large wind farms are a major threat to birds is not news. For example, in California in the United States of America, large birds are also being killed due to the rapid development of wind farms, including the threat to the US national bird, the bald eagle. At the same time, under the leadership of the representatives of the state's ruling Democratic Party, protection requirements for birds and animals have been reduced to make it easier to build wind farms.
However, the US authorities have gradually acknowledged the problem. Last year, for example, NextEra, one of the largest wind developers in the United States, pleaded guilty to causing the death of 150 eagles and was fined $8 million (7.6 million euros).
A public letter to the British Prime Minister warns of the consequences of deepening censorship
More than a hundred academics, historians, journalists, and others have sent an open letter to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warning against the growing censorship of free speech, The Telegraph reports.
The letter states that social networks, government officials, universities, and NGOs are attempting to label legitimate opinions as fake news.
It points out that the censorship of unpopular opinions and ideas is deeply worrying because it is precisely the widest possible freedom of expression that is the best protection against all kinds of disinformation. “By labelling certain political or scientific positions as ‘misinformation’ or ‘malinformation,’ our societies risk getting stuck in false paradigms that will rob humanity of hard-earned knowledge and obliterate the possibility of gaining new knowledge,” the letter states. "We do not want our children to grow up in a world where they live in fear of speaking their minds," it adds.
It also says that censorship on social media on issues of national and geopolitical importance is already commonplace and that freedom of expression is also being restricted on the basis of a person or group feeling potentially offended. "Such interference with the right to free speech suppresses valid discussion about matters of urgent public interest, and undermines the foundational principles of representative democracy. We recognise that words can sometimes cause offence, but we reject the idea that hurt feelings and discomfort, even if acute, are grounds for censorship," the letter states.
The letter also expresses concern about the Online Safety Bill, passed by the UK Parliament in September, which obliges social media companies to remove posts that are deemed illegal. Failure to do so could result in fines of up to 10% of a company's global turnover or billions of pounds for large social media platforms. This is a regime similar to the European Union's Digital Services Act, which came into force in August. Last week, we wrote that the European Commission has opened its first probe into the social network X under the act.
The letter also highlighted concerns about the UK Home Office's plan to open end-to-end encryption of private messages on platforms such as WhatsApp.
The letter has been signed by several prominent people, including comedian John Cleese, psychologist Jordan B. Peterson, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, journalists Julia Hartley-Brewer and Peter Hitchens, free speech activist Toby Young, writer Richard Dawkins, historian Robert Tombs, and others.
In total, there are 136 signatories and many of them have experienced the limiting of their freedom of expression already – for example, on the Covid issues, when publishing truthful information was blocked and censored. It has emerged that a secretive UK government agency worked with social media companies to prevent discussion and criticism of the government's restrictive policies.
The same was done in the United States, where government pressure restricted the publication and dissemination of truthful information about the Covid pandemic. Similarly, political posts were censored or blocked at the insistence or suggestion of government authorities.
You can also read a two-part analysis we have published on how the censorship has expanded in recent years (Part 1 and Part 2).
US judge sends a pro-Donald Trump meme-maker to prison
This Wednesday, United States District Judge Ann M. Donnelly sentenced a man who spread online memes targeting Hillary Clinton supporters during the 2016 presidential election to seven months in prison. Douglas Mackey was charged with conspiracy to interfere with potential voters’ right to vote in the 2016 election for the Office of the President of the United States.
Mackey had around 58,000 followers on the social media platform Twitter (now X) by 2016. While this number of followers may seem modest for the United States, the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) media lab considered Mackey to be one of the most important influencers in the context of the presidential election, and the court accepted this assessment. From September to November 2016, Mackey posted various memes on his account urging Hillary Clinton voters to vote from home – via text message or social media. Such a voting method was not, of course, used in practice. Mackey also used Hillary Clinton’s campaign messages in those memes. In particular, the Court criticised a meme in which Mackey used a photo of an African American woman and suggested voting from home once again.
In this case, it has been repeatedly pointed out that exactly the same kind of messages to Trump supporters to vote from home were posted on social media by Clinton supporters back in 2016, but no proceedings have been brought against them.
Mackey's jail sentence was also commented on by Elon Musk, the current owner of X, who said it was impossible for Mackey to have influenced the election through his actions. "What prison sentences were given out to those who suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop information? That *did* have a material impact on the election," Musk said.
Musk is referring to the fact that prior to the 2020 presidential election, The New York Post published several articles about the corrupt business dealings of Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden. These articles were based on material from Hunter Biden's laptop. There were clear indications in the articles that Joe Biden could also be linked to corruption and influence peddling with Ukrainian and Chinese businessmen during his time as Vice-President of the United States under Barack Obama. Although, in retrospect, everything in the articles has been confirmed, the US security agencies went to great lengths to bury the story published shortly before the presidential election. Social media companies were told that the story was a so-called hack and leak operation by a foreign country, and both Twitter and Facebook severely limited the possibility of circulating the story. A public letter was also organised stating that the story had 'all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation'. The letter was signed by a number of former intelligence officials, but the story, of course, had nothing to do with Russia. We've written more about this story in our article on Twitter files.
Pfizer once again lowers Covid sales expectations: people don't want vaccines, Covid drug
Drug company Pfizer announced last week that its turnover this year will be lower than initially expected. While in its previous forecast, the company had said that sales would be in the range of $67-70 billion (€63.65-66.5 billion), the fresh outlook is for a range of $58-61 billion (€55.1-57.95 billion). The figures are still huge, but we recall that the company's record sales were driven by Covid sales last year, when they swelled to just over $100 billion (€95 billion), with the support of the world's taxpayers.
The fall in sales is down to a drop in the sales of Covid products – sales of both the Comirnaty vaccine and Covid's Paxlovid drug are now down by $9 billion (€8.55 billion) compared to the previous forecast, i.e. to $12.5 billion (€11.88 billion) in total. In comparison, Covid drugs accounted for $57 billion (€54.15 billion) of the 2022 turnover.
The company's results are not, of course, unexpected and reflect the fact that people do not want to use these products. This is despite national recommendations. While, for example, President Joe Biden's administration still recommends vaccination, and we have also written that in some medical institutions in the United States vaccination has been made mandatory again with the new booster dose, most people have opted out. For example, only 3% of Americans have been vaccinated with the updated and promoted booster dose. On the one hand, this may be due to the fact that Covid is no longer an issue of importance to people, alongside other problems, and on the other hand, it may also reflect people's perception of the efficacy and safety of these vaccines. Pfizer acknowledges in its announcements that vaccines can have serious side effects. For example, the press release quoted in the same article states in a review of adverse drug reactions that the Comirnaty vaccine can cause serious heart disease: “mRNA COVID-19 vaccines show increased risks of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the lining outside the heart), particularly within the first week following vaccination. For COMIRNATY, the observed risk is highest in males 12 through 17 years of age.”
We have previously noted that Europe is also struggling with too many vaccines and has to dispose of and destroy millions of doses, losing billions of euros, due to a lack of public interest. The European agreements are, of course, a bigger loss again to our taxpayers rather than to Pfizer – the European Commission agreed with the company in May to reduce and delay supply, while it would receive a fixed amount for each dose cancelled. The amount was not disclosed.
All of this has also hurt the listed company's share price. Pfizer's share price has been on a downward trend for months now – it has fallen almost 40% since the beginning of the year.