The Free Speech Union

Is Britain sleepwalking into a new censorship regime?

In this episode, Lord Young talks to Free Speech Union policy and research director David Rose about his new briefing paper, Misinformation about Misinformation, and the weak evidence being used to justify ever-tighter controls over what people can say and see online.

David argues that claims about the threat of “misinformation” are being exaggerated to legitimise a far-reaching apparatus of monitoring, regulation and suppression — one that could privilege state-approved narratives while pushing dissenting or independent voices out of view.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, read David Rose's briefing "Misinformation about Misinformation": https://freespeechunion.org/publications/misinformation-about-misinformation

JOIN US FOR A LIVE RECORDING of the podcast at the Battle of Ideas Festival on Saturday 17 October in Central London: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/podcast-live-the-free-speech-union-on-the-free-speech-frontline/

(FSU members can get 20% off by clicking on the link in the members' email from 22 September 2026.)

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#freespeech #censorshipdebate #internetfreedom

The Free Speech Union's Connie Shaw is joined by her friend and fellow activist Maeve Halligan.

They met through free speech, gender critical networks in London while undergraduates at different universities. At university, both found themselves at odds with a woke orthodoxy which seemed particularly popular among female students.

When Maeve Halligan spoke against trans activism at a Cambridge Union debate in summer 2026, her speech went viral. It was a spectacular finale to her year as founder president of the Cambridge University Society of Women (CUSW).

Maeve explains why, even though she lost the vote at the debate, she hasn't given up hope of winning over young women. 

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JOIN US FOR A LIVE RECORDING of the podcast at the Battle of Ideas Festival on Saturday 17 October in Central London: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/podcast-live-the-free-speech-union-on-the-free-speech-frontline/

(FSU members can get 20% off by clicking on the link in the members' email from 22 September 2026.)

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Is Donald Trump undermining press freedom?

Veteran US journalist and SpyTalk editor and podcast host Jeff Stein joins David Rose on the Free Speech Union podcast to discuss Trump’s clashes with the media and the million-dollar defamation lawsuit that could have cost Stein his home. He explains how Substack Defender funded his successful legal defence, why costly libel actions can silence independent journalists and what his case means for free speech in the US and UK.

#freespeech #censorshipdebate #pressfreedom

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Join us for a live recording of the podcast at the Battle of Ideas Festival on Saturday 17 October in Central London: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/podcast-live-the-free-speech-union-on-the-free-speech-frontline/ (FSU members can get 20% off by clicking on the link in the members' email from 22 September 2026.)

Follow Jeff Stein Substack: https://substack.com/@spytalk

Spytalk podcast: https://www.spytalk.co/podcast

Subscribe to the Free Speech Union podcast channel for more interviews on freedom of speech, censorship, media freedom and civil liberties.

A shocking video of police turning up on the doorstep of a teenager's home went viral in 2025. Officers demanded devices, barged into the house, and seized a young girl's phone over an unverified social media allegation.

Jake Hurfurt of Big Brother Watch investigated what happened next. What he uncovered is shocking.

In this episode of the Free Speech Union podcast, Jake joins the FSU's David Rose to unpack what really happened in that viral case, and how it fits into a nationwide crisis of over 62,000 communications arrests across the UK.

Read Jake Hurfurt's report "Britain's Free Speech Problem", published by Big Brother Watch: https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Britains-Free-Speech-Problem-070926.pdf

#freespeech #censorshipdebate

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In this episode of The Free Speech Union podcast, Connie Shaw speaks with Reverend Dr Bernard Randall, who underwent a seven-year battle after delivering a sermon encouraging pupils at Trent College in Nottinghamshire to think critically and respect diverse viewpoints on sex and gender.

Trent College was a Christian school and had employed Bernard as its chaplain. But the school had adopted a woke agenda. After Bernard's sermon, he was banned from preaching in the school chapel. He was also secretly reported to the government's counter extermism programme, Prevent. Bernard describes years of tribunal proceedings and Church of England safeguarding investigations. And the importance of standing up for freedom of conscience. 

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#freespeech #censorshipdebate #religiousfreedom

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Stephen Gray, a retired police officer and foster parent, tells Connie Shaw how a reposted Facebook joke led to police at his door, the seizure of his shotgun certificate, a prosecution under the Communications Act and a criminal conviction.

He explains why he believes the joke made a political point about child marriage in Islam, why he is appealing the conviction with the Free Speech Union’s support, and what his case says about policing, the CPS and the shrinking space for lawful but offensive speech.

Please help the Free Speech Union fund Stephen's appeal against conviction: https://freespeechunion.org/fundraisers/blasphemy-fundraiser

#freespeech #censorshipdebate #blasphemylaw

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The death of Jason Arday has triggered calls for press regulation and censorship, including an “Arday’s Law” to limit the number of articles written about one person.

Graeme Wood is a free speech absolutist and a staff writer at The Atlantic. He joins the Free Speech Union’s Director of Research and Policy, David Rose, to discuss the Jason Arday plagiarism scandal, the backlash against journalists, and why calls for state regulation of the press should alarm anyone who values free speech.

#freespeech #censorshipdebate #pressfreedom

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Read Graeme Wood's article in The Atlantic: "Jason Arday’s Final Self-Delusion Elevating a fraud is shameful. Exposing one isn’t." https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/08/jason-arday-death-lies-delusion/688311/

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Collin May had a successful academic and professional career, culiminating in his appointment in 2022 as chair of the Human Rights Commission for the Canadian province of Alberta.

But May's 2009 review of an academic book about Islam was about to destroy his career.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims, a lobby group with links to the Muslim Brotherhood, claimed that passages in May's review were offensive and Islamophobic. May was sacked after defending his review and refusing to resign.

In this powerful interview, May explains how this resulted him losing his home and his reputation. But the experience also inspired his book about cancel culture's evolution into something even more dangerous: “incarceration culture”.

Collin May is now the reserach director of the Free Speech Union Canada.

#freespeech #censorshipdebate #cancelculture

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Collin May is the author of "From Cancel Culture to Incarceration Culture: Prosecutorial Democracy and the Future of Cancellation" https://www.amazon.com/Cancel-Culture-Incarceration-Prosecutorial-Cancellation/dp/1680533703/ref=sr_1_1?crid=27W0VIQHAC3K5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.J8DAk3dQCAmI833r5a1NghwsrksvmTNq7LFkf1yDkmgqYNibkEuMqMHiIspFCvRvclei4HNbZI-Ghqf6UPPnuw.-ckc1S7E8I1Iv10ZwAa51gzhWiIAOK1Gq0azkaovpbo&dib_tag=se&keywords=from+cancel+culture+to+incarceration+culture&qid=1786989661&sprefix=from+cancel+culture+to+incarcaration+cultu%2Caps%2C214&sr=8-1

The Charlie Hebdo attack divided Prof Matei Candea's friends. It also prompted him to embark on an anthropological study of free speech.

The result is "Reason, Carnival and Honour: An Anthropology of Free Speech", a book which explores the hidden assumptions behind free speech debates.

Professor Candea discusses his book with Dr Jan MacVarish, the Free Speech Union's director of national engagement.

#freespeech #censorshipdebate

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Buy Professor Matei Candea’s book, Reason, Carnival and Honour, published by Pelican: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241711258?tag=prhmarketing2552-21

Professor Matei Candea’s website: https://www.candea.org/

Comedian, author and commentator Andrew Doyle joins FSU General Secretary Lord Young to discuss a little-noticed government-commissioned report on misinformation and its implications for public debate.

The report's Orwellian proposals include "psychological inoculation", "pre-bunking" and game-based "interventions" to steer the public towards state-approved political messages.

Andrew Doyle and Lord Young also discuss:

#freespeech #censorshipdebate #onlinesafety

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Andrew's Substack: https://substack.com/@andrewdoyle

Read Andrew Doyle's Substack article about proposals to "inoculate" us against "wrongthink": https://www.andrewdoyle.org/p/the-government-report-that-wants

Read Lord Young's Spectator article on the dangers of policing misinformation: https://spectator.com/article/the-dangers-of-policing-misinformation/

Read the report commissioned by the UK government's Office for Science, "False and Misleading Information: An Evidence Summary and Map for Policy and Practice" here: https://usher.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2026-05/False%20and%20Misleading%20Information%3A%20An%20Evidence%20Summary%20and%20Map%20for%20Policy%20and%20Practice%20.pdf