Nick Mathiason

No, not 💯 Elon. In the U.K. they’re not going round ‘finding people who’ve said something they disagree with and putting them in a f—king cage.’ Some people are being charged for inciting racial hatred and for organising acts of violence. It’s very specific, and it’s the law in most democracies including the US. For example, one person has pleaded guilty today to inciting an attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers: an attack which then took place. Another hotel was set on fire, with people still inside. Freedom carries responsibility: and freedom of speech carries with it the responsibility of each of us to use our words wisely and to be aware of the damage misinformation can cause. To be clear, criminal violence directed towards various communities in the U.K. was perpetrated as a result of malicious and specifically targeted misinformation online. And it’s a relief no-one was killed. Words matter. And yet here you are, running a huge information network, and all you can do is post 💯 over something you choose not to verify for accuracy, not alert people to it’s highly damaging nature. In fact, because of who you are, your 💯 gives it a stamp of approval in the eyes of those who seek validation for their actions. What we say and do has real consequences. That’s because we’re not in a matrix, we’re in real life, and sticking 💯 on a lie doesn’t turn it into truth.

The extreme Right are very loud rather than very popular. But as long as the media mistake loudness for popularity, the extreme Right will keep getting more airtime than their rivals. That’s not to underestimate the very real frustrations with politics that many of their supporters feel, but it does give us the first very real sign that the march of the Far Right is not as relentless and unstoppable as they would browbeat us into believing. It’ll be hard work and demand full attention, but they CAN be stopped. And that gives me hope.