Freedom of Speech

Lord St John of Bletso Excerpts

Friday 10th December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord St John of Bletso (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury for initiating this debate, which is timely, this being international Human Rights Day. Coming last to the crease before the wind-up speeches, and after so many excellent speeches, I will not detain your Lordships for the full seven minutes.

There is no doubt that we live in an era wrought with cultural and political hostility, driven largely by the increasing open public discourse on social media sites. I entirely agree with my noble friend Lady D’Souza that freedom of speech has often been hijacked by social media platforms. While freedom of speech should be protected, recent examples have shown us that false information, often pedalled by digital companies, has allowed their platforms to affect real political outcomes and frame important narratives. The challenge is how to strike a balance.

One of my concerns is that social media sites have free reign to censor and moderate content as they please, often doing so unevenly and unfairly, posing a threat to freedom of speech. Facebook’s content moderation and hate speech rules, which tend to favour elites and Governments over grassroots activities and racial minorities, are a case in point. I welcome their recent efforts to tackle these issues. However, not enough has been done.

By controlling what people can and cannot see, effectively acting as publishers rather than platforms, these social media sites have effectively gained control over the dissemination of information online. Bearing in mind that many people, particularly the youth, read their news on social media, it poses the question of whether self-regulation is more stringent or more rigid regulation is needed. In many ways, it is hard not to admire the innovation and creative genius behind much of what has emerged from Silicon Valley, but one cannot doubt that the age of social media has been just as corrosive as it has been productive. As we move from the universe to the metaverse, these issues will only be exacerbated if they are not tackled now. The algorithms of platforms such as Twitter are undoubtedly designed by data scientists who may have a particular political or social agenda and great power to influence others.

I fear that some of the academic institutions in this country have been overtly censorious in nature. I refer to Amber Rudd being banned from speaking at the Oxford Union. For those who called for her to be de-platformed, my response is that they should not have banned her but challenged her and engaged her in debate. If we remain divided, and some individuals continue to feel silenced, we face the increased risk of political extremism and populist backlashes. The question is how we uphold freedom of speech that balances liberty with the protection of those who need protecting.

Institutions such as the Free Speech Union are gaining traction, stepping in to protect those who cannot, as they call it, be cancelled for controversial things that they say or do. A balance needs to be struck between regulating harmful content online, such as child pornography and hate speech, and protecting real and legitimate speech to preserve the forum as the modern marketplace of ideas. Certainly, the Covid pandemic has illustrated the far-reaching powers that social media companies have in controlling a narrative and vital information online. In summary, my call is for a level playing field where social media enterprises are held to account and where ideas, grievances and beliefs can be aired in public and be rejected, endured or challenged.