麻豆社

Every few hundred years, the human race does something innovative. The printing press. The internet.

Around the turn of this century, when I stopped receiving kind letters after Thought for the Day and found comments on the 麻豆社 website instead, I was taken aback by the vitriol. Not, as I first assumed, directed against me alone. Suddenly everyone seemed to hate everyone.

This week Lucy Powell MP filed a bill to protect us from this ubiquitous racism, misogyny, homophobia, and just plain ignorance such as recommending bleach enemas as 鈥渃ures鈥� for autism. If her bill becomes law, social media platforms could become responsible for hate crimes posted on them; and so-called secret settings eliminated.

Some years ago I debated with someone whose speciality was telling us how to kill ourselves; his defence that his forum was for over-eighteens. I felt rather strongly about this: our son Alexander鈥檚 Asperger syndrome was not diagnosed till adulthood. He was so bullied by grown-ups he nearly killed himself aged ten: his life saved, in part, by not knowing how. Being technologically competent, he could have found such online information with ease.

Happily, he鈥檚 still with us, and if I鈥檝e understood correctly, his primary reservation regarding Ms Powell鈥檚 bill is that it could stifle, not just hatred, but everything. The Electronic Frontier Foundation estimates that twenty per cent of Europe鈥檚 workforce employed to read every reported infringement of copyright would be so slow as to be useless. The easiest 鈥� perhaps only 鈥� way for social media fora to comply without an unimaginable army of regulators, would be the automatic removal of every post against which there鈥檚 a complaint.

Anyone could silence anyone.

To my amusement, the incident which put me on Wikipedia was agreeing to speak with two unspeakables. I鈥檓 fascinated by those I disagree with, and was intrigued to learn how Nick Griffin and David Irving would defend their views. I never did. The Oxford Union was besieged from lunchtime onwards, thirty deep. We couldn鈥檛 get out till early morning.

All I managed to say, in an evening of raucous shouting, was that if we silence those we don鈥檛 like we鈥檒l deprive ourselves of our most radical prophets.

Ahab was killed for speaking out. Jeremiah thrown down a well. John the Baptist lost his head.

鈥淏efore Abraham was, I am.鈥� An outrageous and blasphemous claim. The Son of God was killed for what came out of his mouth.

Shouting fire in a crowded building risks lives. Hate crimes which incite violence or rape, threats to security or physical well-being, must always remain against the law. How we update this for the internet I wouldn鈥檛 presume to know.

All I know is I鈥檇 rather be offended than silenced. Others may disagree.

Endanger my safety and I want the law on your head. Insult my faith or my face, offend my beliefs or my allegiances, and I welcome your freedom along with my own.

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