Media Release October 3 2022
Right to Life is concerned about a recent address by our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern to the United Nations General Assembly. We believe that her speech was a call to seek support for censoring free speech on the internet. This is an attack that cannot go unchallenged.
Right to Life believes there is real danger when a government imposes its will on the people to restrict freedoms. In her speech Ardern called for collaboration between big tech and governments using the mechanism of software allogrithims to censor what the government considers to be ‘dangerous’ social media content. This should raise alarm bells. Using political power to censor views that it disagrees with approaches the very definition of tyranny.
Freedom of speech is a human right. It is the duty of government to protect it, not to censor it.
Obviously there is some content on-line that needs to be censored. Few would disagree that content such as the footage of the Christchurch mosque shootings should not be allowed to be screened on the internet. But the issue is this. Who gets decide what is acceptable and what is not?
When we examine the way governments have used their power to shut down and censor debate about issues like the efficacy and safety of recent health measures taken to counter virus outbreaks, then we clearly see abuse of power. This is especially so when science is used as the rationale for these measures when even the science has been abused to misinform and even disinform.