Don’t let free speech be the victim of the Belfast riots

If anything can be said to unite today’s Labour Party, it is the belief that there is no problem that cannot be solved by controlling what people can say – particularly online. So, after the first night of rioting in Belfast, it came as no surprise to read the following warning on Liz Kendall’s X account on Wednesday:

‘Those who use social media to incite violence and disorder are breaking the law. Next week we will lay in parliament an update to the Online Safety Act requiring services to take quicker action to remove illegal content circulating during times of crisis.’

Kendall – secretary for science and innovation – reinforced the message with her next post: ‘I have explicitly asked Ofcom to discuss urgently with X and other platforms how they will comply with the Online Safety Act.’

While her plans are yet to be outlined, it doesn’t take a Delphic prediction to see where this is heading. Kendall and the Labour government will use the unrest we have witnessed this week in Belfast – provoked by an attempted beheading allegedly carried out by a Sudanese immigrant – to acquire greater power over what people can say on social media.

After all, this is simply what the Labour Party does. The response of Keir Starmer’s government to the Southport riots in 2024 was a fierce assault on free speech. In many cases, those convicted for statements they had made online were treated more harshly than the rioters.

In its censorship efforts, Labour has been aided by the Online Safety Act. Spawned by the previous Conservative administration and nurtured into legislative existence under Starmer’s administration, the act has chilled discussions on everything from grooming gangs to community hamster forums. Just last month, a Reform UK campaign video on immigration was removed from TikTok on the grounds of ‘hate speech’ deemed non-compliant with the Online Safety Act.

And now Labour is coming for those talking in terms it doesn’t like about the Belfast stabbing. In the battle for online speech, Labour can’t be given an inch. We must now allow free speech to be the victim of those riots.

Hugo Timms is a staff writer at spiked.