The Edition: Can Elon Musk take on the tech censors?

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🗓️ 28 April 2022

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

In this week’s episode: Is Elon Musk heading for a clash with the British Government over free speech?

Elon Musk is buying Twitter. But might the Tesla CEO be in for a battle he wasn’t expecting with the UK government? Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson writes about this potential clash in this week’s issue and he joins the podcast to expand on his thesis. (00:49)

Also this week: Where is it ever ok to stare at someone?

If you’ve been on the tube recently you might have spotted a rather startling sign. This poster warns passengers about intrusive staring on public transport, so as to protect women from feeling intimidated on their commute. But who, we ask, will speak up for those who love staring at people on public transport? The answer is Cosmo Landesman who defends his love of people watching in this week’s Spectator. He joins the podcast along with Emily Hill who also has written for us on how silly she thinks this policy is. (09:56)

And finally: Is getting a fringe a cry for help?

Martha Gill writes in this week’s Spectator on the subject of fringes. Why have they come to signify a difficult or traumatic phase in a woman’s life? She joins the podcast along with celebrity hairdresser Cristiano Basciu who has a defence of the fringe. (17:35)

Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore

Produced by Sam Holmes

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is sponsored by Canacord Genuity Wealth Management, award-winning wealth managers who go
0:06.2	above and beyond to support and guide you. Visit can-dowealth.com to start building your wealth with confidence.
0:18.2	Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator.
0:23.8	Every week we take a look at some of the most important and intriguing stories from the issue with the writers behind them.
0:30.1	I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor.
0:32.7	And I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's executive editor.
0:35.9	This week, is Elon Musk heading for a clash with the British government over free speech?
0:41.7	Plus, is it ever okay to stare at someone?
0:45.2	And finally, is getting a fringe a cry for help?
0:49.4	First up, Elon Musk is buying Twitter.
0:53.0	But might the Tesla CEO be in for a battle he wasn't expecting
0:56.9	with the British government? Spectator-editor Fraser Nelson writes about this potential clash
1:02.6	in this week's issue, and he joins us now. Fraser, in your piece this week, you start by writing
1:08.6	about the online safety bill, which is currently
1:11.4	going through Parliament, and you call it one of the most ambitious censorship laws that
1:16.8	the world has ever seen. Since Elon Musk, who has just bought Twitter, calls himself a free
1:23.4	speech fundamentalist, do you see the potential for a future clash between Twitter and the UK government?
1:30.8	I think you can see the clash starting already. Only last night, Elon Musk put out a tweet saying
1:36.9	that he would refuse to censor anything that wasn't illegal. Now, of course, the whole point of the
1:42.8	government's so-called online safety bill is to create a
1:45.7	new category of things that intends to censor, things that are legal to say, but are in the government's
1:51.1	words, harmful. Now, that, of course, is very controversial. You would certainly argue that I would,
	...

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