At the centre of democracy is free speech. But everywhere you look it is under attack. There has been a surge in concerns about the creeping censorship that fills the airwaves and the increasing suppression on various media platforms.
Our work has been targeted by those who aim to silence and limit our right to free speech. Therefore, we consider it vital to understand the tactics of censorship to exercise your right to freedom of expression and contribute to the fight for free speech.
The Instant Emotional Outburst
This usually is an abusive attack that uses swear words (‘you stupid asshole‘) or seeks to defame you somehow: you’re a murderer, you have blood on your hands. It typically is an instantaneous reaction that seeks to shut down the debate immediately. Everyone should know you’re such a bad person, and therefore equally, your opinions are …..
We find this strategy impossible to engage with and should be ignored.
The Labelling Technique
This will pigeonhole you as an ‘anti’ something, a ‘phobic’ or an ‘-ist’. It may paint you as a Right-winger or a Left-winger. The aim is to put you in your place: you’re someone with a fixed ideology and, consequently, a terrible person. Therefore, your views aren’t worth engaging with. This is a common tactic as it doesn’t address the message you portray but instead attacks you, the messenger.
It’s a tactic that academics often use: Jeremy Farrar used it in his book. Somehow there are “serious scientists”, and therefore there are those that lack the ability to be serious.
As a strategy, it is impossible to deal with and is a certain ender of debate. However, when this happens, it generally means you are on the right track, so don’t be fazed by these disturbing actions; it shows the attacker has lost his way and cannot formulate a coherent argument; he has run out of options.
The Takedown
Increasingly this is the tactic of social media sites. Driven by certain positions that suit the status quo or the government of the day, you’ll be removed from social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook. Or your message will come with a warning.
Often underpinned by fact-checking sites, this strategy requires action to overcome any ban. We think it is necessary to regulate such sites if they act like news outlets. While the latter have editorial controls, the former should be clear about the process of what it should and shouldn’t allow and how it deals with disputes.
We also learned some politicians favour this tactic. For example, the Lockdown Files based on Leaked WhatsApp messages showed that attacks were partly orchestrated by Matt Hancock, who harnessed the full power of the state to silence ‘dissenters’. As far as Hancock was concerned, anyone who fundamentally disagreed with his approach was mad and dangerous and needed to be shut down.
One of the answers is to create multiple channels for your outlets, and increasingly, we’re finding Substack a valuable outlet for explainers about the problems.
The Undermining Publication.
While the emotional outburst, the labelling and the takedown undermine your credibility, a fourth approach is to produce a website or a publication that seeks to destroy your reputation.
In January 2021, a website called ‘Anti-Virus: The Covid-19 FAQ’ was created by a group unknown to us, including a sitting MP. Its sole purpose was to debunk messages that disagreed with mainstream Government policies — the website list “myths” about Covid and names “sceptics”, including us. If you click on names, you will be introduced to a series of capital charges against us. We were no longer evidence-based if we questioned the evidence for policies such as the Rule of Six.
The website was “dedicated to debunking common Covid Sceptic arguments and highlighting the track record of some of the most influential and consistently-wrong Covid Sceptics”.
However, the truth will emerge over the long term, and the proponents of such sites will end up wishing they had never embarked on such a foolhardy strategy.
But beware of being called out for making an error. Undertaking research is fraught with dangers; mistakes are common and can occur at all stages, even at the point of publication. An overzealous editor can change one word, and the whole meaning of your text can go out the window. Of course, mistakes made should be acknowledged and corrected. But beware of the censorship zealots who will seek to taint all your work going forward as error-strewn.
The complaints
An insidious approach that seeks to get your boss and your organisation to shut you up. The complainant hasn’t got the means or the argument to take you on directly. Instead, he or she goes behind your back, puts you and your family under pressure, and, in some circumstances, threatens your livelihood. In doing so, he accepts his inability to debate and discuss the issues directly.
However, sometimes they will also make a big deal over the investigation. Your work is tainted because the organisation deems you worthy of an investigation. The vast majority of complaints are disagreements, but organisations seem ill-equipped to tell the difference between a valid complaint and someone employing the tactics of censorship and suppression.
Editorial Bias
We have increasingly seen several journals and news outlets take a particular stance and only report or accept articles based on their ideological views. Unfortunately, nothing can be done to counter this problem; however, it is worth understanding those outlets that take such fixed views. Beware of those that seek to slander you editorially.
We’ve been surprised by some of the medical journals’ one-sided approaches – including the commissioning of biased and Teflon editorials and the deviation from usual editorial processes that seek to undermine the research output. Teflon is when the uncomfortable message cannot stick to you, the editor, because you are hiding behind an editorial undermining the research you do not like. In fact, with Teflon, nothing sticks.
Some editors cannot withstand the pressure of the social media posse, who circle their prey like vultures. The worst thing an editor can do is give in to these bullies: unelected, relentless and often overnight experts. Give in once to the posse, and you may perish, or even worse, you might find your work retracted. Be ready for the onslaught and prepare well. In your fightback, take the emotion out of your responses and turn to the evidence.
But beware of those editors who choose peer reviewers to support their one-sided views using anonymous attacks to suppress research outputs that don’t meet their predetermined opinions. Ultimately though, it will be to their discredit as they should be built on impartiality and fairness: it’s fair to say that journals have had a lousy pandemic. However, there’s little to do here but move on to the next journal; there’s plenty of them.
Comments Cartel
This is a brilliant tactic. It consists of an organised onslaught on a piece of published research work. You can see this in the comments to A122. The underlying message is that the research is unsound because so many people post negative comments; hence, science is democratic, and the Noes have it, which is nonsense. We recommend databasing the addresses of the senders if they exist and checking the text for style patterns, as most of the comments are repetitions passed along from one member of the cartel to the next.
It’s worth reminding yourself of some laws that protect you if you decide to speak out.
The 1986 Education Act (No.2) states: “Persons concerned in the Government of any establishment… shall take such steps as are reasonably practicable to ensure that freedom of speech within the law is secured for members, students and employees of the establishment and for visiting speakers.” The 1988 Education Reform Act references the right of U.K. academics “to question and test received wisdom and to put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions without placing themselves in jeopardy of losing their jobs or the privileges they may have at their institution”. The European Convention on Human Rights Article 10 states that “protection extends to the expression of views that may shock, disturb or offend the deeply held beliefs of others”. UNESCO’s 1997 Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel states that institutions should be accountable for effectively supporting academic freedom and fundamental human rights.
It comes down to this: no single idea or belief should be privileged. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. If we elicit an emotional response or find that folk disagree or are disappointed by our answers, we have done our job. However, emotions that lead to the tactics of suppression and censorship fail to engage critically with the issues of the day.
Reflecting uncertainty is a central tenet of free speech. However, the current pursuit of truth is a path filled with hazards. Learning to approach matters of debate critically and with confidence will ensure our democratic values remain intact.
Dr. Carl Heneghan is the Oxford Professor of Evidence Based Medicine and Dr. Tom Jefferson is an epidemiologist based in Rome who works with Professor Heneghan on the Cochrane Collaboration. This article was first published on their Substack blog, Trust The Evidence, which you can subscribe to here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
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All attempts to control viral spread outside sterile clinical settings such as surgeries are entirely moronic.
That’s all that needs to be said.
Of course, if your actual intention is not to control viral spread but to control people and make money, it’s far from moronic – it worked very well, for a while, in controlling people, and continues to make £££££s.
The lesson from China is that even with a regime like that, there are limits to what people will tolerate. If our fellow citizens had simply not complied from the start, this crap would have been over much sooner. The timelines of rolling back restrictions seemed suspiciously to run just behind the curve of compliance reducing to a point that was getting embarrassing for the authorities.
Yes but since when are surgeries ‘sterile clinical settings’ This has been used by NHS trusts to re-mandate moronic masks and social distancing. Such virtue signalling is now seen by maybe 50% of the much to the employees as utterly ineffective and possibly injurious. Even in N Wales, most of the customers ignore the requirement as do I.
I mean an actual surgery where ppl are operated on. Not offices where GPs toss out big pharma pills.
Indeed. Stephen Petty, a real expert in this field, has given presentations to US government representatives on why masks don’t work. He was asked how long this information has been available. He responded ‘Over 80 years’.
Don’t you mean outside hermetically sealed rooms with specialised ventilation and airlocks, and specially suited staff?*
There is no such thing as a sterile clinical setting. In clinical settings – they should be clean – sterile equipment is used together with aseptic technique to reduce the risk of cross-infection staff to patient; patient to staff; patient to patient and mostly concerns bacteria which are easily transferred by contact and which can reproduce on surfaces, in liquids, on the skin.
An operating theatre is not ‘sterile’. It can be sealed and gassed to kill a specific suspected pathogen, but thereafter will become invaded by whatever pathogens are carried in the air or brought in on equipment or people.
Trying to control aerosol spread of viruses other than described at * above is a fools errand.
“hermetically sealed rooms with specialised ventilation and airlocks, and specially suited staff”
Sounds a bit like a lab where they do research into viruses
Of course nothing bad could escape from one of those
During the most-recent Ebola epidemic, a serious attempt at preventing the spread of Ebola in hospitals was being made. That looked very much different from the COVID gymnastics of 2020/21 and even this didn’t really work: Hospital staff still got infected in rare cases.
I’d go further than that — I’d say that for respiratory viruses anything less than a BSL-3 laboratory is futile.
By associating the CCPs ‘relaxing’ of Wuhan Flu rules with the ‘spread’ of a virus elsewhere keeps the narrative alive that all the controls work.
With all the information and data we’ve digested over the past few years, culminating into dissenting studies (against the narrative) which are now increasingly postulating the theory the jabs are neither safe, nor effective – I’m a firm believer the shots are causing, have caused a huge increase in the spread & infection of the rona (not to mention untold misery of those suffering adverse reactions.. or worse).
I know it’s been said countless times but from the get-go, our UKHSA (PHE) surveillance reports were showing ominous signs even in the early days that those vaccinated (therapied) were testing positive two times, three times, up to four times more compared to the unvaccinated (per 100k so a fair comparison) which had progressively increased during the main rollout and boostered beyond. Yes this sounds absurd but so is the suggestion they’ve “saved” countless lives. Where is the definitive data for this outside of anecdotal evidence? Either could as easily be concluded as the reality as there’s little definitive data to otherwise confirm it.. and both conclusions are under the assumption the tests are more use than not – which is highly debatable in itself. I’d wager they’re about as useful as a test for bad breath. How bad is your breath today?
As far as China’s potential release of a multitude of new variants, those with natural immunity (and we’ve now herd immunity) will recognise any “new” variant since they’re still only ~20 – 30% unfamiliar to the original strain[s] we built said immunity from. There’s nothing to fear but fear itself!
I fail to see the point of testing for the latest variety of the ‘flu bug.
Particularly when the testing procedure uses a wholly discredited and inappropriate PCR process.
Sorted.
Xi’s attempt to “save face”, perhaps? In the meantime, there have been reports that a well known American firm is attempting to transfer manufacturing to elsewhere – Vietnam in their case (ironic, maybe, but money talks).
“Hong Kong’s omicron wave showed that these Chinese vaccines reduced short-term COVID-19 mortality among the over-80s compared with the unvaccinated…”
How? Is this more ‘The Science’ which relies on anecdote, claim, assumption but eschews actual falsifiable evidence?
What would the point be of testing arrivals from China? Then what – isolation to keep out a mild virus producing Cold symptoms that has been in circulation here for probably about 3.5 years to which most of the population has had multiple exposures and mostly immune.
Viruses evolve in a manner that results in the increasingly mild variants being more successful at reproduction and thereby dominant.
Why would variants from China be of more concern than our home produced ones or those from France or Canada for example?
Will this madness ever end?
Doesn’t this article assume that such a measure would be done to protect public health? Does anyone seriously believe that’s the motivation? The government and their advisors know very well it’s pointless from a public health point of view. It’s entirely political – either as part of a desire to revive the covid narrative, score points against China, or placate the loonies in media cheerleading for this.
As I have stated many times on here every single measure that has been introduced as an alleged means of safeguarding public health has been anything BUT.
‘Safeguarding public health’ or similar warm and caring phrases, is simply a euphemism for ‘this will hurt you.’
This is all about control.
Everything that has happened in China has proved:
Mask don’t work
Jabs don’t work
PCR tests don’t work
Lockdowns don’t work
But you won’t hear that in the media
If anyone needs someone to talk to we meet every Sunday.
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Amazing isn’t it , just a few short months from celebrity chunt wan cock detailing 10 year , yes 10 YEAR , prison sentences for uk citizens coming back from holiday & filling a form in wrong we get this – that it’s ok to charge in on a prevailing wind of foreign sneezes with no checks whatsoever ! Well I never
The population of the world minus China is 4.6 times the population of China. Hence, it’s China which is attaching to large reservoir for COVID and not the world outside of China. And this is based on the assumption that the Chinese nonsense ever worked for virus control which it didn’t.
It is odd that trying to contain Covid in early 2020, allegedly before it had spread anywhere (at least we thought this at the time) was racist, whereas testing travellers now, when pretty much everyone in the western world has already had Covid is sensible.
Also, the point about ‘variants’ is correct. While it is true that new variants could well come from China (they have 1/3rd of the World’s population, after all), they’re going to have lower selective pressure to create variants that escape vaccine protection which is dependent only on an immune response to the spike protein. That said, I anticipate that we’ll see new variants come along shortly (as has been happening for about 18 months now), and these will be blamed on China (this is stupid, but it conforms to the narrative so that’s what we’ll be told).
I still maintain that the B.S 24.7 will end up being the dominant strain that will become endemic.
Wink
“It is odd that…”
Not odd at all. Entirely consistent with every step, aspect and part of this pandemic of evil lies.
I hope that they’re checked at the border for health insurance. I don’t want to hear of any of them taking up an NHS bed.
Then it seems the UK government are indeed “foolish”. What a bunch of clown world imbeciles!
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64130655
It proves they have learned absolutely nothing from the last two years.
It also proves that they know their beloved Injections of Doom are useless, they’re well aware that the jabbed people’s immune systems are knackered and they’re worried about what will happen when there’s no more lies to hide behind. They’re beyond pathetic.
I doubt they give two hoots about the “vaccines”
It’s purely a political decision
Au contraire they have learnt they can lie with impunity and use fear as a weapon
Top story on the BBC news app
They must be cock a hoop
Hello, here we go again judging by this morning’s panic inducing headline in The Telegraph. Rushi (the man who says he stopped Boris from imposing a lockdown this time last year) is now thinking of reintroducing one. These people are totally and utterly bonkers. When are they going to learn lockdowns, masks (anti) social distancing DOESN’T WORK. Just look at Sweden or Florida.
A reminder of the folly:-
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-fat-emperor-podcast/id1453181214?i=1000591708937
Not the first time I’ve read that “as a result” of lifting restrictions in China the outbreak has accelerated. I thought we’d worked out by now that little we do in the way of NPIs makes a significant difference.
NPI’s are intended to degrade public health which is why they are pushed constantly.
This article assumes that covid is a serious and deadly thing. We can look back now and see that there is no evidence of any pandemic anywhere in the world in the last few years. I am extremely sceptical of the unduly busy crematoria in China being because of deaths from Covid-19.
I initially thought that the UK government might brush off this silly-season “information”. However, following their announcement of no action two days ago, it appears that the UK government is now demanding tests from travellers from China.
Though this may appear to be a small, insignificant measure, it is a clear example of how self-reinforcing panic sets in and can become impossible to stop: by pandering to laughably distorted claims and applying “solutions” which do not remotely bear upon the problem, if problem there is. I thought we’d finally seen the last of this nonsense, in the UK at least.
Worse, the scaremongering figure of “9000 deaths per day in China” has as its sole basis some UK “modelling” outfit calling themselves “Airfinity”. Never heard of them. Can we see their workings? Are they peer-reviewed scientists, or do they just have a lust for media mentions and a very effective PR department? Have we actually learned nothing from the utter failure of “models” – from Fergusons’s Imperial College models onwards – throughout the spread of COVID?
Headlines such as this in the Independent (and this is only one example of a PR blizzard by “Airfinity”, whoever they are) insult the intelligence. There is no relation whatsoever between the number of people dying of COVID in China and travel restrictions. If 9000 people are actually dying there, travel restrictions will not make the blindest bit of difference to their fate. And though this is often forgotten, every national and global pandemic plan prior to 2020 stated, on the basis of careful thought, that travel restrictions are pointless in restricting the spread of an infectious disease. The only positive news is that some prominent UK scientists seem to now be remembering this.
But concern for the fate of the putative 9000 Chinese people dying daily is obviously not the motivation for headlines such as this. The intent is quite simply fear-mongering. If we don’t impose travel restrictions, then we too in the UK will be “seeing” 9000 deaths per day, is the implied conclusion the reader is supposed to draw.
This idiocy must be nipped in the bud. Even 9000 / 1.453bn represents a daily Chinese death rate of 0.0006%. The UK’s daily death rate from all causes is 1600 / 69m: 0.0023%. Four times higher than this supposedly-terrifying Chinese figure, which is already deeply dubious itself. Airfinity, and an all-too gullible press and Government, are exploiting the manipulative power of large numbers without context.
I am as far from being an apologist for the Chinese government as it’s possible to be. Yet, with regard to COVID, Beijing seem to be damned if they do (attempt to control COVID through brutal, excessive measures) and damned if they don’t (give up this attempt). I have no idea what the UK government is trying to do in their relations with China, and don’t particularly want to know. I would just ask them to get on with whatever it is they’re doing, through diplomatic and other channels, without attempting to terrify the UK population in the process. We’ve had enough of scaremongering.
The article in today’s Telegraph has a little snippet of a quote from a “senior Tory MP” which just says it all:
“The politics is that if we are not seen to be doing anything it doesn’t look very good when other countries like Italy, Spain and the US are taking action.”
Right…..
Can I suggest that someone look into this “Airfinity” outfit, find out more about who the hell they are, where they sprang from?
https://www.airfinity.com/about
They struggle to write English but definitely full of BS. Probably funded by Billy.
The author, David Livermore has authored over 500 papers and regularly appears on Clarivate’s ‘Most Cited’ list. He’s a world expert who earned his expertise from mentors, at the lab bench and in dialog with other microbiologists. Direct knowledge, in other words.
But when he writes about China, he apparently relies on Fox News. How else to explain statments this?
There is no such thing as ‘the CCP,’ though there is a CPC. But the CPC has nothing to do with Covid. Its 100 million volunteers set policy and the country’s general direction and delegates the running of the country to a professional civil service.
However, Dr. Livermore should know from his professional reading that a full course of Sinovac’s attenuated vaccine is more effective than Pfizer– without its side effects. See How China’s Sinovac compares with… | The Economist
As to his contention, “China has helpfully stopped publishing daily figures for infections and deaths. The only useful signal is that crematoria are unduly busy. Even with a mortality rate of 0.1%, 250 million cases translates to 250,000 deaths. The West is, or should be, a spectator at this fiasco. We should merely hope that the long-suffering Chinese recognise the futility of what that has been inflicted upon them”, what can one say?
Meanwhile, the Omicron wave has peaked in Beijing, Wuhan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Shenyan, Changchun, Guangzhou, Ji’nan, and is peaking in Shenzen today.
Hospitals are operating normally. No fiasco. Thanks to three years of meticulous preparation, 95% of people are fully vaxed, and healthier and better informed than they’ve ever been.
China will maintain its 200:1 advantage over us in Covid mortality and long Covid.