Here is our submission to the three-day OHCHR seminar on academic freedom we attended earlier this year. It highlights the key role of social media companies, rather than governments, in controlling online discourse, which impacts on academic freedom.

“To a very large extent, our freedom of expression is controlled by corporate enterprises such as Google, Twitter, Facebook, Medium, and WordPress. These companies decide which information and ideas are permissible and which must be banished.”
Although the RationalWiki page on #LGBAlliance is no longer, as the submission states, the first item to appear when googling LGB Alliance, this page is still prominent and it is not possible to edit the page to correct the disinformation on it.
“Twitter, Medium and WordPress regularly remove texts and accounts from their site on the basis of their rules. It can easily be demonstrated that these rules have been devised to suppress views highlighting women’s concerns about the loss of their sex-based rights.”
“By suppressing views that highlight the reality of biological sex, ... along with views that are widely regarded as obnoxious, these companies create the suggestion that emphasizing the reality of biological sex belongs in the same category as these objectionable ideas.”
“A discussion can be made impossible by changing the terms in which it is discussed. If every reference to the rights of Jews were called ‘Islamophobic’, it would suddenly become impossible, even in academic publications, to discuss antisemitism.”
“This is what has happened to the issue of women’s rights, and it has profoundly undermined the freedom of expression in academia and in society at large.”
“Activists have labelled all references to the rights of women & girls, who experience discrimination and abuse worldwide on the basis of biological factors, as ‘transphobic’. They use hate laws.. intended to prevent violence & abuse of minorities, to silence these discussions.”
“In addition,activists have sown linguistic confusion by coining new words & redefining existing ones. Because the subject of sex and gender is complex,and [to many] awkward & even embarrassing, many people prefer to assume that organisations active in this area are the experts.”
“Most bodies, organisations, companies, even governments defer to these organisations. They do so from the best of intentions, assuming that the aim is to protect the human rights of a vulnerable group.”

You May Also Like

1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”

Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?

A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:


2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to

- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal

3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:

Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.

Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.

4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?

To get clarity.

You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.

It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.

5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”

Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.
Fake chats claiming to be from the Irish African community are being disseminated by the far right in order to suggest that violence is imminent from #BLM supporters. This is straight out of the QAnon and Proud Boys playbook. Spread the word. Protest safely. #georgenkencho


There is co-ordination across the far right in Ireland now to stir both left and right in the hopes of creating a race war. Think critically! Fascists see the tragic killing of #georgenkencho, the grief of his community and pending investigation as a flashpoint for action.


Across Telegram, Twitter and Facebook disinformation is being peddled on the back of these tragic events. From false photographs to the tactics ofwhite supremacy, the far right is clumsily trying to drive hate against minority groups and figureheads.


Declan Ganley’s Burkean group and the incel wing of National Party (Gearóid Murphy, Mick O’Keeffe & Co.) as well as all the usuals are concerted in their efforts to demonstrate their white supremacist cred. The quiet parts are today being said out loud.


The best thing you can do is challenge disinformation and report posts where engagement isn’t appropriate. Many of these are blatantly racist posts designed to drive recruitment to NP and other Nationalist groups. By all means protest but stay safe.