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UK government issues warning: ā€˜Think before you postā€™

Aftermath of protests and riot in the city centre of Sunderland on the evening of 2nd August 2024. Car vandalised and set on fire.

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Car vandalised and set on fire during protests and rioting in the city center of Sunderland on the evening of Aug. 2, 2024. 

Itā€™s been an ugly week in the U.K., as riots have led to illegal acts including looting, arson, violence, and threats. But like so many governments facing crises, officials are reaching the wrong conclusions about how to address the unrest.

The rioting traces back to July 29, when three children were tragically  in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed party in Southport, England. Ten others were injured. 

That same day, a 55-year-old woman from Chester  a claim on social media that the suspect ā€œwas an asylum seeker who came to the UK by boat last year and was on an MI6 watch list.ā€ 

ā€œIf this is true,ā€ she wrote, ā€œthen all hell is about to break loose.ā€ 

It was not true. The 17-year-old  was ā€œborn in Wales to Rwandan parentsā€ and is not an asylum seeker, but claims to the contrary spread rapidly over social media,  in part by Russian state-affiliated media. 

The woman from Chester has since been arrested for ā€œpublishing written material to stir up racial hatredā€ and ā€œfalse communication.ā€

In the following days, riots  in cities across England and Northern Ireland. In those riots, individuals allegedly engaged in looting, vandalism, barricades of buildings housing asylum seekers, and both threats and acts of violence. Police arrested hundreds. 

Counterprotest is always a more effective remedy than silence. Let peaceful protesters exercising their rights lead the way.

Police absolutely must act against those who threaten violence, commit acts of violence, or engage in vandalism and arson. But officials should resist the urge to treat censorship as a solution to problems it cannot solve. Unfortunately, the U.K. government did the opposite, issuing a  on X to ā€œThink before you post,ā€ while quoting a  from the Crown Prosecution Service about inciting hatred and ā€œonline violence.ā€ 

WATCH VIDEO: UK police going global?

This does not inspire confidence that officials will capably protect free speech while cracking down on illegal conduct. While an exhortation to think before speaking may seem like innocuous advice, the vagueness of the governmentā€™s warning, as well as the ominous threat of prosecution along with it, may instead chill citizensā€™ legal expression about events happening in the country.

And as Iā€™ve covered in recent editions of ¹ū¶³“«Ć½app¹Ł·½ā€™s Free Speech Dispatch, the U.K.ā€™s track record on speech even before these riots has trended downhill. 

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In June, for example, U.K. police  coconuts and placards and detained protesters outside a courthouse where former teacher Marieha Hussain appeared in response to a ā€œracially aggravated public order offenceā€ charge. Hussain was arrested last year after holding a sign at a pro-Palestinian protest that depicted high-ranking U.K. politicians Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts, an insult implying the target is ā€œbrown on the outside but white on the inside.ā€

If government officials in the U.K. are interested in alternatives to censorship, they can simply look to the solution employed by their own citizens: more speech. Days after the riots began, in  where more riots were feared or expected, ā€œlarge anti-immigration protests had not materialized.ā€ Instead, ā€œthousands of antiracism protesters gathered in cities across the country, including Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool and London.ā€ Indeed, these riots have proven deeply , with polling showing ā€œconcern about right-wing extremistsā€ skyrocketing among Britons, now ā€œat almost the same level as that towards Islamic extremists.ā€

U.K. officials should keep this in mind as calls for censorship increase. Counterprotest is always a more effective remedy than silence. Let peaceful protesters exercising their rights lead the way.

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