The UK is failing to protect freedom of speech, prominent activists have said, after the government banned two leftwing US political commentators from entering the country to attend speaking engagements.
Cenk Uygur, the host of the Young Turks online political talkshow, and Hasan Piker, who runs his own hours-long stream each day, were both due to appear at SXSW London, while the former said he had also been due to speak at an event run by University of Oxford students.
The Home Office said the two men had their electronic travel authorisations (ETA) cancelled because their presence in the UK “may not be conducive to the public good”.
Uygur has been accused of propagating antisemitic tropes in his criticism of Israel. He has insisted that his criticisms are confined to an analysis of Israeli influence over US policymaking, saying on Monday: “The mighty United Kingdom is afraid of speech that shows you who’s responsible for … war crimes. But no amount of censorship will get us to stop telling the truth.”
Piker has faced a backlash over some of his comments – including reportedly saying on a 2019 stream that “America deserved 9/11”, a comment he later apologised for and said was “inappropriate”.
He has stood by his characterisation of Hamas as “1,000 times better” than Israel, and his claim that he “would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time”, in an episode of Pod Save America, the podcast hosted by former staffers for Barack Obama. Piker has said he is not antisemitic, but anti-Israel.
The bans prompted Jemimah Steinfeld, chief executive of the Index on Censorship, to claim the government had overseen a “worrying escalation”. Akiko Hart, the director of Liberty, called on the government to be transparent about its rationale for issuing bans.
Steinfeld said she was not downplaying the harmful effects of some of the people recently banned from entering the UK, noting that the Jewish community was feeling particularly besieged. But she expressed concern that banning people who had been invited to speak “makes access to the UK a taste-test based on the current government’s determination of what is in the public good”.
She said: “It’s paternalistic and assumes we are just passive consumers of views rather than people who can think, judge and challenge. It confers an underdog status to the people not allowed to enter, it could embolden other countries to follow suit and it feels fairly meaningless in the internet age where people can simply go online to hear what they have to say.
“Free speech is tested by hard cases and, in this instance, the UK is failing.”
Hart said: “In recent months, we have seen the government preventing people from entering the UK where their speech is deemed to have crossed the line. It is important that any government decisions that restrict speech adhere to the very high standards set out in UK law – and that the government is transparent about why and how decisions have been made.
“Free speech can only exist when we defend it for those we disagree with, as uncomfortable as it may feel.”
Last week, the Labour MP David Taylor called for Piker to be prevented from speaking. And the Jewish organisation the Community Security Trust urged SXSW organisers to “act responsibly” and not allow the UK to be a “platform” for Piker; whom they accused of having a “record of promoting rhetoric that includes antisemitic themes, denial of well-documented atrocities and apparent support for extremist groups”.
Zack Polanski, the leader of the Green party in England and Wales, called the bans “grim”, adding: “People often talk about [the] dangerous road we’d go down under a Reform government – this is another clear warning we’re down there already.”
After news of his ban was confirmed, Uygur criticised the governments in London and Jerusalem, saying: “It’s an honour to have made Israel’s enemies list. I’m very proud to have fought against their genocide. The mighty United Kingdom is afraid of speech that shows you who’s responsible for those war crimes. But no amount of censorship will get us to stop telling the truth.”
Ash Sarkar, a Novara Media journalist who was due to chair a discussion with Piker at SXSW, said on Monday the decision was evidence of an “authoritarian turn motivated by Labour’s fear of being called antisemitic, and fear of being called out for their position on the genocidal war on Gaza”.
Piker appeared at the Oxford Union without intervention by the home secretary last year. In that appearance, he warned that antisemitism was “a canary in the coalmine of fascism” and said Jews had “always been singled out by those in power as a scapegoat for instability and economic volatility”, adding that the conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism was “dangerous”.
Uygur had been due to speak there on Friday. On Monday, Arwa Elrayess, the organisation’s president, said they were “deeply concerned”, adding that the union “was founded on a simple principle: that ideas should be challenged through debate, not ignored or silenced”.
The Home Office said: “Decisions to refuse or cancel an ETA on these grounds are based solely on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to UK society. Where applications require further consideration, individuals may choose to apply for a visa if they still wish to travel to the UK.”
SXSW has previously said the event brings together a “wide range of speakers with different associations, affiliations and perspectives” and that “inclusion in the programme does not imply endorsement of all organisations with whom a speaker may be directly or indirectly affiliated”.
