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The dark arts: Cancel culture & freedom of speech

03 February 2021 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7919 / Categories: Features , Human rights , Technology
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Nicholas Dobson navigates the murky world of free speech & cancel culture

Back in 1971 Coca-Cola ran a TV advertisement offering universal harmony in a bottle of Coke. All together now: ‘I‘d like to teach the world to sing/In perfect harmony/I’d like to buy the world a Coke/And keep it company.’ Some years later the internet was able to offer universal connectivity, if not always harmony.

But, as the COVID-19 lockdown demonstrated, the internet can be a force for good. Since 23 March 2020 when the stop whistle blew on normal life, it’s been the internet that’s kept people and businesses connected, enabled online shopping, afforded smooth remote working and video connectivity for many and kept life’s essentials ticking. The internet has also developed into an astonishingly rich and deep mine of information on all aspects of the human condition.

But, of course, in every Eden lurks a serpent. And once again the oily snake is human nature itself. For if an invention can do good, it

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

FOIL—Bridget Tatham

FOIL—Bridget Tatham

Forum of Insurance Lawyers elects president for 2026

Gibson Dunn—Robbie Sinclair

Gibson Dunn—Robbie Sinclair

Partner joinslabour and employment practice in London

Muckle LLP—Ella Johnson

Muckle LLP—Ella Johnson

Real estate dispute resolution team welcomes newly qualified solicitor

NEWS
Solicitors are installing panic buttons and thumb print scanners due to ‘systemic and rising’ intimidation including death and arson threats from clients
Ministers’ decision to scrap plans for their Labour manifesto pledge of day one protection from unfair dismissal was entirely predictable, employment lawyers have said
Cryptocurrency is reshaping financial remedy cases, warns Robert Webster of Maguire Family Law in NLJ this week. Digital assets—concealable, volatile and hard to trace—are fuelling suspicions of hidden wealth, yet Form E still lacks a section for crypto-disclosure
NLJ columnist Stephen Gold surveys a flurry of procedural reforms in his latest 'Civil way' column
Paper cyber-incident plans are useless once ransomware strikes, argues Jack Morris of Epiq in NLJ this week
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