{"id":1665444,"date":"2022-09-29T20:17:52","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T00:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1665444"},"modified":"2022-09-29T20:19:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T00:19:39","slug":"jacinda-ardern-makes-clear-at-the-un-she-wants-global-illebral-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jacinda-ardern-makes-clear-at-the-un-she-wants-global-illebral-censorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacinda Ardern Makes Clear At The UN She Wants Global Illebral, Censorship"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjacinda-ardern-makes-clear-at-the-un-she-wants-global-illebral-censorship%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1665444&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>Only days after the American left was lamenting the fall of Italy to the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/26\/is-italys-next-prime-minister-giorgia-meloni-a-fascist-hardly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alleged<\/a> fascist Giorgia Meloni, New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/backtolife_2023\/status\/1575002436808298501\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> world leaders assembled\u00a0at the United Nations that unfettered free expression was one of the greatest threats facing humanity. In her speech, cloaked in the same trendy euphemisms popular among American progressives \u2014 and probably familiar to the depots and theocrats in attendance \u2014 she warned that the internet had been corrupted and weaponized by bad actors who spread mis- and disinformation and hateful ideologies. And the only way we can stop this \u201cweapon of war\u201d is to\u00a0come together and create a set of \u201crules and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As our president might say, no right is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2021\/04\/08\/remarks-by-president-biden-on-gun-violence-prevention\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">abs<\/a>olute. Or, as our former president might say, disinformation is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2022\/04\/21\/barack-obama-disinformation-social-media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">killing people<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ardern went on to argue even \u201clight touches\u201d in regulating speech can often be \u201cmisinterpreted\u201d as attacks on free expression, which \u201cwe value so highly.\u201d Do you, though? Arden is under the impression that a concerted global regulatory speech code, some \u201clight touch\u201d censorship, is a liberal position. A person who lobbies world leaders to band together to dictate the contours of appropriate discourse is an authoritarian. And a person who <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realdailywire\/status\/1551690346039492608\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">maintains<\/a> the state should be the \u201csingle source of truth,\u201d as Ardern had during the Covid lockdowns, is cartoonishly so. If you only value speech when it comports with your worldview and beliefs, you do not value it at all.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the principled point. <\/p>\n<p>The practical point is that whatever good you think suppressing speech might achieve, sooner or later, every censor in history expands the definition of mis- or disinformation to attack political opponents. One of the ways they do this is by conflating genuine disinformation and hateful rhetoric \u2014 which exists in abundance and always will \u2014 with legitimate debate. A good example of how this works was on display when American media, big corporations, and the FBI worked together to shut down inconvenient stories about Hunter Biden and \u201cthe big guy\u201d to help elect their preferred candidate. <\/p>\n<p>Arden herself offers an example of how this soft illiberalism has been normalized in the left\u2019s thinking. Allowing unregulated discourse, the prime minister argues, destabilizes \u201cthe norms we all value.\u201d For example: \u201cHow do you tackle climate change if people don\u2019t believe it exists?\u201d <\/p>\n<p><em>You don\u2019t<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p>There should be absolutely zero expectation that your policy positions will be implemented without any debate. In truly free nations, \u201ctackling\u201d climate change is a policy decision that is sorted out in the democratic process. Or not. What level of climate change rhetoric will Ardern require us to believe? Some of us don\u2019t believe the moral and economic tradeoffs of tackling climate change are worth it. Some of us don\u2019t believe there\u2019s any \u201cclimate crisis\u201d at all. I\u2019m not sure there are enough internet speech regulations that will convince many of us otherwise. When that reality sets in, \u201clight touch\u201d regulation will evolve into something a little firmer, no doubt. <\/p>\n<p>And, speaking of misinformation, what will the UN\u2019s Ministry of Truth do about the alarmist predictions of Malthusians, who have been unwaveringly wrong about nearly everything for the past 50 years? Nothing, of course. <\/p>\n<p>As we\u2019ve learned during the coronavirus pandemic, and long before, state officials are themselves quite adept at conveying misinformation. The government has no moral authority in dictating the veracity of speech. In this nation, it has a duty not to. And yet the Biden administration had regularly involved itself in what we talk about, using the same rationalizations as Arden. Take, for instance, the pressuring of rent-seeking Big Tech companies, which oversee huge swaths of our daily digital interactions.\u00a0 Not that long ago, the White House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/news\/psaki-white-house-flagging-covid-disinformation-for-social-media-companies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">admitted<\/a>\u00a0it was \u201cflagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.\u201d Under what constitutional authority these actions were justified, it did not share. It has been argued\u00a0that social media companies \u201cshould be held accountable\u201d for the ideas people exchange on platforms. Joe Biden previously\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2021\/07\/the-governments-license-to-lie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">accused<\/a>\u00a0Facebook of \u201ckilling people.\u201d Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas even tried creating a \u201cDisinformation Governance Board\u201d to combat \u201cmisinformation\u201d \u2014 run by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/bidens-disinformation-chief-is-trump-dossier-author-fan-and-hunter-laptop-doubter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">right kind<\/a> of conspiracy theorist. I assume this is what New Zealand\u2019s prime minister, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/17\/world\/asia\/jacinda-ardern-election-new-zealand.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hero<\/a> of the international left, had in mind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do you ensure the human rights of others are upheld if they are subjected to hateful and dangerous rhetoric and ideology?\u201d she asks. Easy. You treat all inalienable liberal \u201cvalues\u201d \u2014 including free expression \u2014 as neutral rights. <\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, it\u2019s difficult to believe we have to debate these issues again. Rationalizing state censorship as means of protecting the people from dangerous \u201cmisinformation\u201d has been the rationale of every tin-pot authoritarian regime in history to shut down debate. If you still think it\u2019s a good idea, you\u2019re one of the bad guys.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only days after the American left was lamenting the fall of Italy to the alleged fascist Giorgia Meloni, New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern told world leaders assembled\u00a0at the United Nations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1665444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1665444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1665444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1665444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1665444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}