U.K. Free Speech Advocate Slams ‘Very Sinister’ Threat to Jail People Over Social Media Posts

The U.K. government has strayed far from the historic British promise to protect free speech by engaging in “totalitarian” and “Stasi-like” tactics to crack down on social media posts the present left-wing government deems inaccurate or unacceptable, a leading free speech advocate says.

Days of riots touched off across the nation after the brutal stabbing of numerous young children, which original reports indicated had been committed by a member of the U.K.’s substantial community of illegal immigrants. The government later labeled this “misinformation.” Government officials subsequently threatened to arrest anyone posting “inaccurate social media” containing disinformation. The first individual sentenced under the crackdown, Jordan Parlour, received 20 months in prison over a Facebook post, despite entering a guilty plea.

 “We’re going to have to look more broadly at social media after this disorder,” said Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a member of the left-wing Labour Party. “This is not a law-free zone. And I think that’s clear from the prosecutions and sentencing.” 

Peter McIlvenna, co-founder of the U.K.-based freedom of speech alliance Hearts of Oak, accused the government and the police of engaging in “an unprecedented clampdown” on law-abiding citizens and their freedom of speech.

“The anger spilled from communities being left behind. It’s exactly the same issue that you have in the U.S. that we have all across Europe, which is mass immigration and how it’s decimated and destroyed communities and left many individuals behind and put a huge strain on many of her resources. There’s a lot of anger that boiled over.”

McIlvenna, who works in the office of Lord Pearson of Rannoch, a member of the House of Lords, attributed the most egregious measures to the influence of the new Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour Party. “This far-Left government has waited 14 years to get into power. They’ve got[ten] in. Then there was a honeymoon period. Suddenly these riots kick off. There’s fear in the government that this will destabilize the government. So, they go into full lockdown, full totalitarian procedures to shut this down,” said McIlvenna on “Washington Watch” Wednesday.

“They have also threatened foreign nationals,” McIlvenna noted.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service has promised an unlimited legal crusade against anyone who they believe has inflamed the situation. Police Commissioner Mark Rowley declared on Sky News, “We will throw the full force of the law at people. And whether you’re in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you.”

McIlvenna noted that police had arrested nearly 1,000 people, some for illegal behavior, but many over social media posts and other speech-related activities.

“Rioting, looting is never acceptable. 100%. That is not correct,” McIlvenna clarified forcefully. “If you smash a shop, if you burn a car, then you must suffer the punishment.”

But authorities, without passing any legislation, have threatened subjects of the British crown with “up to 10 years in jail, for participation in these riots — and ‘participation’ means many people have been arrested for simply walking past. They were in the vicinity [but] weren’t involved in it” — drawing comparisons to the Biden-Harris administration’s aggressive prosecution of pro-life sidewalk counselors and alleged participants in the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Yet Starmer reiterated that “whether you’re directly involved or whether you’re remotely involved, you’re culpable, and you will be put before the courts.”

At the same time, the British government has let bona fide criminals go free. “We have the government releasing rapists early and releasing murderers early. We had one case five or six days ago [in which] a man who committed a murder was released after six months, simply to free up prison places for all the ‘extremist,’ ‘hard Right’” protesters.

“Instead of understanding the underlying concern, the government have gone in with a Stasi-like approach, a clampdown that I have certainly never seen in my time except in Northern Ireland” during the troubles, a time of rampant terrorism by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

The response has been “very, very sinister,” warned McIlvenna.