{"id":3423,"date":"2021-10-25T17:37:07","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T15:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/25\/banning-anonymous-social-media-accounts-would-only-stifle-free-speech-and-democracy-owen-jones\/"},"modified":"2021-10-25T17:37:07","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T15:37:07","slug":"banning-anonymous-social-media-accounts-would-only-stifle-free-speech-and-democracy-owen-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/25\/banning-anonymous-social-media-accounts-would-only-stifle-free-speech-and-democracy-owen-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Banning anonymous social media accounts would only stifle free speech and democracy | Owen Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Threatening online messages to politicians should be taken seriously \u2013 but this move is misguided<\/p>\n<p>The aftermath of the horrific killing of Conservative MP David Amess should have been a moment for politicians and the public to unite in an effort to protect democracy. Instead, the discussion has been derailed by a push to ban anonymous social media accounts, which would stifle free speech and democratic rights.<\/p>\n<p>Threatening online messages to politicians and other public figures should be taken seriously. As someone who has experienced online abuse, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2020\/jul\/24\/chelsea-fan-jailed-for-attack-on-guardian-journalist-owen-jones\">physical attack<\/a> at the hands of the far right, I know all too well the danger. But, in this tragic event, there seems to be no known connection between the death of Amess and anonymous online posting.<\/p>\n<p>Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/oct\/25\/banning-anonymous-social-media-accounts-stifle-free-speech-abuse\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/e7d88580bda978144cc598bf2d1ff0b0ffde8450\/0_345_5201_3122\/master\/5201.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=3ca8462d79c49b90979fe0dc1d1282f1\" title=\"Banning anonymous social media accounts would only stifle free speech and democracy | Owen Jones\" \/>Threatening online messages to politicians should be taken seriously \u2013 but this move is misguided<br \/>\nThe aftermath of the horrific killing of Conservative MP David Amess should have been a moment for politicians and the public to unite in an effort to protect democracy. Instead, the discussion has been derailed by a push to ban anonymous social media accounts, which would stifle free speech and democratic rights.<br \/>\nThreatening online messages to politicians and other public figures should be taken seriously. As someone who has experienced online abuse, and a physical attack at the hands of the far right, I know all too well the danger. But, in this tragic event, there seems to be no known connection between the death of Amess and anonymous online posting.<br \/>\nOwen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Threatening online messages to politicians should be taken seriously \u2013 but this move is misguided The aftermath of the horrific killing of Conservative MP David Amess should have been a moment for politicians and the public to unite in an effort to protect democracy. Instead, the discussion has been derailed by a push to ban &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/25\/banning-anonymous-social-media-accounts-would-only-stifle-free-speech-and-democracy-owen-jones\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Banning anonymous social media accounts would only stifle free speech and democracy | Owen Jones<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}