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The Free Speech Union Profile picture
@SpeechUnion
May 26 • 7 tweets • 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
OfS figures show a rise in the number of scheduled events not taking place at English universities—but the higher education watchdog warns that the data "may not show the full picture" of #cancelculture's chilling effect on the public sphere on campus.

timeshighereducation.com/english-regula…
As we point out in our research briefing on the Higher Education (#FreedomOfSpeech) Bill, which recently received Royal Assent, cancellation of visiting speakers isn't an adequate measure of the scale of the #freespeech crisis at English universities.

🔗freespeechunion.org/higher-educati… Image
Real evidence of the issue can be found, for example, in:

1/ Internal regulation of lawful speech.

thetimes.co.uk/article/cambri…
2/ The rise of ideologically loaded training.

unherd.com/2022/01/how-ou…
3/ Universities distorting the curriculum on ideological grounds.

thetimes.co.uk/article/cleare…
4/ Universities investigating staff and students for lawful expression of view.

spectator.co.uk/article/james-…
5/ The physical intimidation of academic staff.

END.

bbc.co.uk/news/education…

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More from @SpeechUnion

The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Mar 25
The Worker Protection Bill will have grave implications for #freedomofspeech in this country, as well as imposing huge compliance costs on Britain’s businesses. This week, the legislation reached second reading in the #houseoflords, and there were some terrific speeches.
Clause 1 of the Bill imposes a duty on employers to take "all reasonable steps" to protect staff from overhearing upsetting remarks made by customers. As a publisher and museum trustee, Lord @IanStrathcarron was able to explain why this part of the Bill wouldn't work in practice.
If we were just talking about sexual harassment, that would be one thing, said Lord Moylan. But in an act of "overreach", the bill is attempting to extend third-party liability to every type of "unwanted conduct" prohibited by the Equality Act, including overheard comments.
Read 4 tweets
The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Mar 10
🚨 BREAKING: The FSU has written to the CEO of the Charity Commission, Helen Stephenson, asking her to open an investigation into Jamia Masjid Swafia, the Wakefield mosque at the centre of the recent 'Quran-gate' scandal.
freespeechunion.org/letter-to-the-…
Jamia Masjid Swafia is the Wakefield mosque at which the mother of a 14-year-old Kettlethorpe High School pupil recently appeared, seemingly in an effort to protect her son, who had been receiving death threats after accidentally dropping a copy of the Quran.
While she sat on a panel held at the mosque, dressed in a Muslim headscarf and modestly bowing her head, the Imam warned that the Muslim community wouldn’t tolerate "the slightest bit of disrespect" shown to the Quran, and if necessary would defend its honour with their lives.
Read 5 tweets
The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Feb 24
The University of Kent is advising all staff and students to call everyone "they" until their preferred pronouns are confirmed — according to the university's website, this will help to create an "authentic culture of inclusion" at the institution.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…
But will it? As Toby Young told the Mail: "Demanding that everyone declare their pronouns will require some people — e.g., gender critical feminists, orthodox Christians — to affirm something they don't believe to be true, i.e., that it's possible for a person to change sex."
The FSU is regularly contacted by members asking what to do about the fact an employer has asked them to declare their preferred gender pronouns, usually below their name at the bottom of an email. That’s why we've pulled together some FAQs on this issue.
freespeechunion.org/faqs-on-what-t…
Read 4 tweets
The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Feb 8
The Lords Amendments to the Higher Education (#FreedomofSpeech) Bill were debated in the #HouseofCommons last night and there was a great outcome—Amendment 10, which seeks to remove the right of students and staff to sue universities that breach their speech rights, was rejected!
Clause 4 of the legislation creates a statutory tort, which Amendment 10 sought to delete. The FSU's position is clear—the tort is what gives the legislation's new free speech duties teeth, and if it's removed then the Bill is essentially a dead letter.

🔗freespeechunion.org/higher-educati…
Among the MPs who rose to support the Government's decision to reject Amendment 10 were John Hayes, who described the tort as "an essential method to give weight to the Bill and teeth to the principles it embodies, and one that gives voice to those who currently feel voiceless".
Read 4 tweets
The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Nov 29, 2022
The new version of the Online Safety Bill seems, on the face of it, to be an improvement on the previous version, although the devil will be in the detail.

Let's start with the positives.🧵
Plans to introduce a new harmful communications offence in England and Wales, making it a crime punishable by up to two years in jail to send or post a message with the intention of causing “psychological harm amounting to at least serious distress” have been scrapped.
That's good news because, as Kemi Badenoch said in July, “We should not be legislating for hurt feelings.”

The bad news is, the new communications offence was intended to replace some of the more egregious offences in the Communications Act and the Malicious Communications Act.
Read 36 tweets
The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Nov 18, 2022
Great news via WeAreFairCop! Non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) are/were a threat to #freespeech in the UK — like @WeAreFairCop and @BadLawTeam, the FSU has supported people who've fallen foul of this sinister form of thoughtpolicing.

Here's a brief 🧵on the history of the NCHI...
Back in 2014, the College of Policing's original guidelines defined NCHIs as incidents “perceived by the victim or any others to be motivated by hostility or prejudice”. Around 20,000 NCHIs have been recorded per year since then.
spiked-online.com/2022/06/01/the…
At the time, NCHIs could be:

1⃣ Reported by the victim or by any other person who witnessed the incident.

2⃣ Recorded irrespective of whether there was any objective evidence to identify the hate element.

They also showed up in enhanced DBS checks for potential employees.
Read 10 tweets

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