Thread by @docrussjackson

It's the "Woke Mafia!"

The EVIL WOKE MAFIA not only have the audacity to, er, challenge bigotry, but they've also been known to criticise the infantile divisive drivel puked out by dim-witted highly partisan clickbait columnists in non-dom billionaire owned #propaganda comics!😱

#THREAD

Read about how world-leading expert on nerve agents, Dan Kaszeta, was 'disinvited' from a UK Govt-backed conference after his @Twitter account was trawled through, THEN tell me to 'stand up to the cultural mafia or free speech will cease to exist.' 🤬

#Gaslighting101

The American, who has been based in the UK for the past 13 years, said was "outraged" that the government's trawl through his Twitter account means he can no longer share his knowledge with delegates from the government, industry, academia & armed forces.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

He received an email last month that told him: "Rules introduced by the Cabinet Office in 2022 specify that the social media accounts of potential speakers must be vetted before final acceptance to the programme. The vetting is impartial and purely evidence-based."

"The check on your social media has identified material that criticises government officials and policy. It is for this reason and not because we do not value your technical insight, that I'm afraid that we have no choice and must cancel your invitation to the CWD conference."

"This is an outrage against free speech. I was going to speak about possible future scenarios around the world in which chemical demilitarisation would be relevant. I think perhaps the most controversial thing I would say was we don't really know what's going on in North Korea."

The email is the clearest indication so far of the unpublished guidance from the Cabinet Office on the restrictions on who can be given a prominent platform to speak at government venues and events.

The first known example of the new "no-platform" rule being used came when expert on AI, Professor Kate Devlin, was disinvited from speaking at an event about women in tech after receiving an email saying it was because she had "made a criticism of Govt policy on social media".

In her case, she had previously criticised the Govt's planned Online Harms Bill, made anti-monarchy comments, & RTd a parody of Truss. She was clear her talk would not be touching on any areas she had her own private views on & found it "quite alarming" she'd still been excluded.

"I'm a critic of the government's policy on homelessness and asylum seekers. Why that should have any impact whatsoever on whether or not I can speak to a technical conference in my own area of expertise. That's Stalinist."

When approached for an explanation, the government said: "As the public would expect, we conduct due diligence checks and carefully consider all speakers at any government hosted conference to ensure that we can have a balanced and constructive discussion around our policies."

Other than Ms Devlin & Mr Kaszeta, whose identity was first revealed by the Times, @BBCNewsnight knows of three other professionals who have received similar letters after the Cabinet Office vetted their social media.

Free speech? Hello authoritarianism.