If anyone thought the govt's war on "cancel culture" was really about free speech & not about shoring up the platform for specific right wing views, this news should shatter their illusions: @PriyamvadaGopal has had a talk to the home office cancelled because of her views. 1/n
https://twitter.com/christiancalgie/status/1448320793469984769
@PriyamvadaGopal I want to be very clear here. Prof Gopal has not had her right to freedom of speech violated. Her academic freedom has not been violated.
She was offered the privilege of speaking at the home office, & that privilege has been revoked. It's rude, but not a violation of her rights.
She was offered the privilege of speaking at the home office, & that privilege has been revoked. It's rude, but not a violation of her rights.
However, the government has recently launched a whole damn new piece of LAW to prevent the (actually very rare) occurrence of University groups cancelling speakers because of their controversial views. They're pretending that's motivated by protecting freedom of speech. 3/n
This makes it blatantly obvious that they're not interested in protecting freedom of speech unless they agree with that speech. 4/n
And although I am happy to state that this isn't an infringement of academic freedom, it comes pretty damn close. Because this appears to be *a government minister* preventing someone from airing their views. 5/n
Gaving Williamson, as education secretary, claimed that Uni groups cancelling talks has "a chilling effect" on free speech. For Prof @PriyamvadaGopal being cancelled by a government minister has the potential to be really bloody chilling, I would say. 6/n
Whilst she's a brave woman, and I don't think for one second that this will silence her, there is a huge difference between this and a student group cancelling a talk from Amber Rudd, in terms of who holds the power. 7/n
(As an aside, it will be VERY interesting to see how the mainstream media reacts to this, in the context of other "academic freedom" related controversies that are rumbling along currently and getting a lot of coverage...) 8/n
**Please** read Professor @PriyamvadaGopal's own statement on what has happened. What she has to say is very important: zen-catgirl.medium.com/statement-on-h…
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