Professor Paul Wragg gives expert opinion on Times Radio as part of the debate on whether MPs should use Twitter
The School of Law’s Professor of Media Law, Paul Wragg appeared, for a second time, on Calum Macdonald’s Times Radio show on 21 April 2021 as part of a debate on whether MPs should use Twitter.
Following on from an article in the Times, written by Phoenix Andrews, “To cool down the culture wars, get MPs off Twitter”, Professor Paul Wragg and Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate discussed the contribution that MPs make, even inadvertently, to the toxic practices of silencing opponents and detrimental effect that this has on free and open debate.
Professor Wragg argued that the government’s delayed plans for tackling online harms and abuses ought to be implemented, without further delay, so as to make social media platforms responsible for the atmosphere of hate that presently exists. Moreover, he challenged the assumption that opposition to controversial viewpoints, often mislabeled as ‘cancelling’, is a denial of free speech, even as a matter of principle: ‘the right to speak’, he said, ‘is not a right to be heard.’
