Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore talks with Mark White from the US Left-wing free speech organization Plebity.
Mark and Daphna discuss how the Left of the past was at the forefront of defending free speech, why that is no longer the case and why the Left shouldn’t bet their money on tech billionaires like Elon Musk to be their free speech savior.
Visit the Free Speech Union Podcast
Momentum is building for our Free Speech and the Left virtual conference scheduled for June, 2023.
The conference participants include some of today’s most interesting voices, coming together to discuss the most divisive issues of the day.
We’re in active collaboration with the New Zealand site Redline, India & the Global Left and acTVism Munich.
What is the left?
Panelists will consider whether leftist thought offers relevant and useful ways of thinking about capitalism and exploitation, empire and forever wars, cancel culture and identity politics, environmental destruction and degrowth, social justice and universalism, animal rights and morality, and of course free speech.
We recently wrote about Pakistan's 48 hour ultimatum to Wikipedia–either remove certain ‘sacrilegious’, i.e. blasphemous content, or be blocked in Pakistan.
In fact, after the 48 hours were up, Wikipedia was blocked throughout the country. The ban was short-lived. Access was restored after a three day suspension.
Who won, blasphemy laws or free speech?
Last Wednesday the Pakistani government issued an ultimatum threatening to shut down the online crowd-sourced encyclopedia Wikipedia. The Pakistani authorities gave Wikipedia 48 hours to remove certain content they deemed to be ‘sacrilegious’ or blasphemous.
The forty eight hours had passed by Friday evening, and Saturday it was announced that Wikipedia had been banned in Pakistan.