Genuine death threats against politicians are no joke. But that doesn't mean every joke – such as threatening to turn someone into a sausage roll – should be taken as an actual death threat, says Steven Tucker.
The post Promising to Turn Someone Into a Sausage Roll is Not a Genuine ‘Death Threat’ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
With 62,000 people arrested for speech crimes in five years, the UK can no longer claim to be a free society, says Paul Birch. The state has learned to fear its people and will no longer tolerate them speaking freely.
The post Britain’s Speech Police: How the State Learned to Fear its People appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Reform doesn't have the dignity of the Tories' grand history, but its lack of historical baggage means it has more freedom to set out radical new policies, says Prof James Alexander. Together, they would be unstoppable.
The post It’s Time for a Conservative and Unionist and Reformist Party appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Prince Harry and six co-claimants, including Baroness Lawrence, must pay £9.5 million to Associated Newspapers in the next seven days after a judge ruled their hacking case was unreasonable to a high degree.
The post Prince Harry and Fellow Claimants Must Pay £9.5 million to Mail After Judge Rules Hacking Case Was ‘Unreasonable to a High Degree’ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Shiloh Hendrix got a $1,000 fine and 200 hours of community service for using a racial slur. The Somali man who filmed her had rape charges dropped "in the interest of justice". Only in Minnesota, says Steven Tucker.
The post In Minnesota, Words Matter More Than Rape appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Being attacked by your opponents is one thing. Being turned on by your allies is another. For that reason, the coverage in the left wing media would have been more painful for Jason Arday than in the right wing media.
The post For Jason Arday, Attacks in the ‘Left Wing Media’ Must Have Been Harder to Take Than Attacks in the ‘Right Wing Media’ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen has been barred from entering the UK after she was convicted in Finland of ‘hate speech’ for sharing her Christian views about gay marriage. Shabana Mahmood should overturn that decision now.
The post Shabana Mahmood Should Overturn the Decision to Deny Entry to the UK to Finnish Parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Self-censorship is rising and traditional publishers steer clear of controversial topics. Mike Fairclough explains why he has launched a new publishing venture – and why it matters now.
The post Why I Founded Free Speech Press appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
A driver has been denied car insurance because he put 'Jesus loves you' stickers on his car, and is now planning legal action against his insurer, GoSkippy.
The post Driver Denied Car Insurance Over “Jesus Loves You” Stickers appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
It takes a lot to get your typical white-bread American riled up enough that they’re willing to go to jail. Getting arrested is a massive pain, bringing court dates, fines, and a record that can shadow your job and housing prospects for the rest of your life.
For most folks, just the threat of jail time is enough to keep them on their best behavior. Yet in 2026, data centers have become one of the rare issues pushing more and more of Americans to risk it anyway.
So far in the US, Futurism has counted at least 37 arrests stemming from protests related to data centers this year. There were an additional 12 cases where police intervened to prevent protestors or speakers from confronting civic leaders, though in reality that number is likely much higher, as these cases aren’t as likely to make the news.
Unlike in other moments of political unrest in recent memory, it’s hard to pigeonhole these anti-data center activists demographically. They range from landowning farmers to physics teachers, zoomers to boomers, rural townspeople to suburban parents.
Despite their differences, the arrestees all have one thing in common: they each felt the actions of democratically elected officials are failing to reflect the wishes of their constituents, instead deferring to massive tech corporations.
Take the case of 42-year old Pablo Payan, a maintenance manager from Indiana. During a public meeting in May held to discuss plans to erect a massive Amazon data center in the city of Hobart, Payan refused to identify himself for the record before speaking, resulting in an attempted removal by police.
As officers were escorting him out, Payan says he asked why he was being removed, which prompted officers to place him under arrest for criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.
“In my opinion, I was kicked out to prove a point that the law is on their side and if people continue to try and express themselves and speak, they will also be intimidated or arrested by law enforcement,” Payan told Fox32 after the fact. “So I think it was a flex of power.”
Far from the “anti-tech extremism” that law enforcement agencies and the Trump administration have warned about, these demonstrations are overwhelmingly peaceful, escalating into physical confrontations only when police lay hands on a person to remove them. Many of the charges come when anti-data center activists break petty clerical rules, like going slightly over the allotted time for a public comment.
Lux Claridge, a physics teacher from Emporia, Kansas, is an exemplar of the absurd ways civic leaders can weaponize police to stifle dissent. At a public meeting earlier this month, Claridge was arrested after clapping in support of another community member speaking out against a proposed 1,000 acre data center campus — running afoul of a commissioner’s rule against “snapping” and “clapping.”
“I am fully of the notion that clapping is a First Amendment right that I have,” Claridge said in an interview with 404 Media after the fact. “I can exercise that as long as I’m not disrupting, and I still argue that I was not disrupting at all.”
“I have a right to clap,” Claridge continued, “and if you want me out, you’re going to have to drag me out.”
Starmer wants to force platforms like YouTube and Facebook to boost BBC content – in spite of the fact that trust in the BBC is collapsing.
The post Starmer Plans to Force Social Media Giants to Prioritise BBC Content appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
According to Keir Starmer, a teenager doesn’t have the judgement to scroll through Instagram without state supervision, but does have the judgement to pick the next government. We are governed by idiots, says Clive Pinder.
The post Too Young for TikTok, Old Enough to Vote? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The evidence from Australia is clear, says Dr Reuben Kirkham, Director of the Free Speech Union of Australia: Sir Keir Starmer's social media 'ban' is doomed to fail. And it targets the wrong things anyway.
The post Keir Starmer’s Doomed Social Media ‘Ban’ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
There's a simple way to do age verification checks online which respect privacy without spending millions on another failed government IT project. So obviously we won't do it, says Phil Hendren.
The post The Right Way to Do Age Verification Checks appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Free-thinking comedy and political satire are alive and well. Jack Watson reviews Comedy Unleashed’s recent gig in Leeds – banter, 'inappropriate' accents and un-PC jokes that cancel culture will never be able to kill off.
The post Comedy Unleashed Knocks It Out of the Park in Leeds appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Sensitivity readers, racist gatekeepers, editing by committee – mainstream publishing has been destroyed by woke gobbledegook. The silver lining? Substack is thriving because publishers have failed to discover good new writers.
The post Why I’m Glad Publishing Has Destroyed Itself appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
A covert Home Office unit founded by an ex-MI6 spy has been secretly advising police on 'controlling the narrative' during Britain’s race riots, i.e., manipulating and suppressing speech. Is this thought policing?
The post Revealed: The Shadowy Government ‘Thought Police’ Unit Suppressing Speech to ‘Keep a Lid’ on Racial Tensions appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Liberal Democrats' intolerance of gender critical campaigners and Christians has rightly landed them in legal hot water and shown that those in charge are no friends of liberty, say David Campanale and Natalie Bird.
The post The Liberal Democrats Are No Friends of Liberty appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Why did the Metropolitan Police attend a UCL bar to kick out our group of conservative-minded students over our views on transgenderism, asks Samiksha Bhattacharjee.
The post Why Did the Met Police Kick Us Out of a Bar for Having the Wrong Views on Trans? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Starmer wants to ban children from social media. Jack Watson, 17, argues the Government is making a serious mistake – in his experience, the benefits of social media outweigh the costs.
The post As a 17 Year-Old Who Has Spent my Entire Life on Social Media, I Think the Benefits Outweigh the Costs appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
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