Prof Paul Bernal Profile picture
Aug 25, 2019 6 tweets 1 min read Read on X
It’s a little frustrating that MPs who
(a) paid no attention to leave’s breaking the law
(b) ignored Cambridge Analytica
(c) ignored the DCMS report on misinformation; and
(d) voted to trigger Article 50 despite warnings
...are *now* worried about Johnson overriding parliament.
It’s only *now*, when it’s too late, that they start to care. There have been *plenty* of opportunities to intervene, and plenty of *reasons* to intervene, but it would have taken political bravery to rock the boat. Where was that bravery then?
It’s not just the Brexiters who’ve refused to listen to experts. Almost all MPs refused to listen to expert warnings about triggering Article 50. Almost all refused to listen to expert warnings about electoral interference. Etc etc.
It’s been a failure from start to finish. It’s not surprising the Boris Johnson thinks he can ride roughshod over parliament when parliament has been such an abject failure in the process so far.
Perhaps Cambridge Analytica was ‘too complicated’ for the electorate to understand. Perhaps Cambridge Analytica was too complicated for the MPs to understand - but it *shouldn’t* have been. MPs had (and have( a duty to understand this. It’s their job.
And yet they either don’t understand it - and it’s significance - or they’re too scared or too feeble to take on the consequences. I wouldn’t like to say which. Either way, it’s an abject failure by our politicians.

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More from @PaulbernalUK

Aug 13
Do you remember when we told you the laws against protest were authoritarian?

Do you remember when we told you the Online Safety Bill was a threat to free speech?

Do you remember caring?

No. Because you didn’t care.

Thread… 1/4
You didn’t care because you didn’t like the protestors & wanted them stopped.

You didn’t care about the Online Safety Act because you only thought evil trolls would be caught by it.

Newsflash: a tool to control can be used by people you don’t like, as well as those you do. 2/4
Newsflash 2: governments change.

Whenever you give a government *you like* powers, subsequent governments get those powers too.

Give Boris Johnson powers, you give them to his successors. You give them to Keir Starmer.

That works both ways. 3/4
Read 4 tweets
Aug 2
This past week has shown (once again) that the biggest harms of social media are not the ‘trolls and bots’ but the big accounts that magnify, corral and spread the harm. (Short thread) 1/4
These are not anonymous accounts, these are not ‘foreign’ accounts. These are our mainstream media people, our politicians, our ‘influencers’ and ‘commentators’. Amongst other things, this is yet another demonstration of how badly focussed the Online Safety Act is. 2/4
We spend our time looking at individual ‘harms’, at specifically harmful ‘content’ rather than at the structural issues (algorithms etc) and at the obvious ‘bad guys’ rather than at the overall effect. 3/4
Read 6 tweets
Jul 7
A few points about Starmer’s majority on a small vote share - and a comparison with Johnson’s situation in 2019. First thing to remember is that *as of this moment* it doesn’t matter how many votes they got, but how many seats. 1/7
That’s the problem with FPTP - a seat is a seat is a seat. In terms of governance, that means Starmer’s position is incredibly strong. He can basically do what he wants - just as Johnson could do whatever *he* wanted. 2/7
That i puts the emphasis on what Starmer actually does. There’s the rub. How did Johnson turn a massive majority into a crushing defeat? By governing abysmally. By being corrupt, incompetent and dishonest. He couldn’t fulfil his promises - because his promises were lies. 3/7
Read 7 tweets
Jun 17
I have a little theory about Sunak. There are many reasons he’s in the mess he is, but one of them is his decision to go ahead with the Rwanda Scheme. He had a chance to step back from it, to abandon it. Instead he chose to push it. 1/4
He knew it was batshit. He knew it was unworkable. He just thought it would resonate with the nutters and the racists, and give him credibility with the far right. With the GBeebies audience, with the Braverman fans. 2/4
The trouble is, its failure to function was then on his hands. The nutters and racists still don’t like him, and its failure gave Farage (and Braverman) room on the right. The Overton Window is shifted, and the last remnant of Tory ‘competence’ is extinguished. 3/4
Read 4 tweets
Jan 31
A few small points on ‘serious harm’, which was the crux of the Laurence Fox defamation actions. Firstly, the requirement for serious harm was added in the Defamation Act 2013 - the most recent reform of defamation law. 1/6
It was brought in specifically to make it harder to succeed in a defamation action. To stop trivial cases from succeeding. To help free speech. It adds an overall requirement before you even look at the words at issue. 2/6
The act says ‘A statement is not defamatory unless its publication has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to the reputation of the claimant.’ There are two parts to this. Is the harm ‘serious’, and did the statement ‘cause’ it. Both have to be shown *by the claimant* 3/6
Read 7 tweets
Nov 28, 2023
A short and somewhat simplified thread on defamation law and the Laurence Fox case - and why it’s currently proceeding as it is. There are a number of key issues about the way the law works that need to be understood. 🧵 1/12
After Fox’s appearance on BBC’s Question Time in 2020, a number of people called him a racist on Twitter - and he responded by calling them paedophiles. They sued him for defamation for saying that, and he counter sued them for calling him a racist. 2/12
To count as defamatory, since the Defamation Act 2013, a statement has to cause ‘serious harm’ - which is why we’re hearing Fox describing all the jobs he’s lost as a result of being described as a racist. Significant loss of income would count as serious harm. 3/12
Read 12 tweets

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