This article is taken from the October 2024 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10.

What did Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Ivan the Terrible, Genghis Khan, Idi Amin and Caligula have in common? That’s right: they were all able to speak.

The riots in the UK were directly caused by bad words on the internet.

This quite obviously proves that free speech is a tyrannical concept, one that can lead directly to murder, terrorism, genocide and — worst of all — misgendering.

And so it is a relief to see that one of Keir Starmer’s key priorities as prime minister is to crack down on online speech. Already he has ingenuously granted early release from prison for drug dealers, sex offenders and violent criminals to free up space for bigots who have said nasty things on social media.

The government has repeatedly pointed out that the riots in the UK were directly caused by bad words on the internet. One of those arrested was an elderly retired midwife from Devon, who had accidentally read an inflammatory Facebook post whilst browsing for cupcake recipes. Within ten minutes, she found herself punching Persian toddlers and throwing grenades at a mosque.

For all the endless whingeing of free speech extremists, Starmer appreciates that words must be controlled to ensure that his subjects behave themselves. Surely most reasonable people would rather have their liberties restricted than live in a fascist state?

The next step is to see Elon Musk extradited. It was bad enough that he renamed Twitter as “X”, which is just a swastika with a few bits chopped off. But he has also allowed users to say whatever they like. As a result, wrong opinions are being duplicated at an alarming rate.

“Regulators around the world should threaten Musk with arrest if he doesn’t stop disseminating lies and hate on X,” wrote Robert Reich in the Guardian. Although I don’t approve of his surname, he makes a valid case.

Back in 2013, Starmer was quoted as saying that too many Twitter prosecutions could “have a chilling effect for free speech”. These were dangerous words, and although Starmer has since changed his mind, he should probably be calling for his own prosecution.

If you don’t want to be arrested, don’t say the wrong things. It really is that simple.