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

Nov 8
What will happen when the MAGAs find out that deporting undocumented migrants doesn’t help jobs, wages, or the economy, doesn’t reduce crime and doesn’t improve their situation? 1/5
What will happen when they find out that tariffs make their shopping more expensive, not cheaper? What will happen when they find out that tax cuts don’t apply to them, just to the rich? 2/5
What will happen when the Incels find out that even with Trump in the White House women don’t want to sleep with them? What will happen when they learn that the techbro billionaires aren’t actually on their side? 3/5
Read 5 tweets
Oct 3
A short thread on bias at university. In my course on ‘The Protection and Management of Privacy and Reputation’ we use the Laurence Fox defamation case as a case study. It’s a technically interesting case: I teach it for that reason, not because of the political aspects. 1/6
I would give bad marks to anyone who said ‘Fox lost because the judge refused to define racism’ not because I’m politically biased, but because that would not be true. Fox lost because his legal team were unable to demonstrate that the relevant tweets caused serious harm… 2/6
…whilst his opponents legal team were able to demonstrate serious harm from his tweets. I would, however, give good marks for well-written arguments that the case shows that defamation law can have a chilling effect on social media, and that this may not be a good thing. 3/6
Read 6 tweets
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

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