On the National program this week, Siouxsie Wiles was talking about misinformation around coronavirus. Apparently, YouTube decided to research the most popular searches about Covid-19 and found 67 YouTube videos that contained misinformation. They had been viewed 250 million times and Facebook and You-tube decided to delete some of this "misinformation".
Siouxsie, a spokesperson for our government, went on to define misinformation, as all information that is contrary to the World Health Organisation. So, currently, any different perspective, given by even qualified experts and doctors, on any matters of health, viruses or vaccines, are classified as misinformation.
In the UK recently, David Icke a man who questions the global narrative, had his YouTube channel deleted. A vaccine specialist Dr Judy Mikovits has her million-view video deleted by You tube. A businessman in the UK, Brian Rose, had the biggest YouTube livestream in history, (over a million people) but with prospect of being deleted by Google, has had to form his own channel called LondonReal.tv. So, what Facebook and YouTube do not agree with, they delete.
Alternative viewpoints are not necessarily right, but if we only have access to the permitted viewpoints, we may never know the full truth about anything. Without free access to information, someone else decides what is true and what is false for us. This is the thin edge of the wedge, for freedom of speech on those platforms. Eventually they may decide that the message of salvation through Christ alone, is misinformation or harmful speech.
As private companies, YouTube and Google are free to ban everything they don’t like but the Church does not need them, to get the job done - Paul and the Apostles didn’t.
With or without You Tube, the freedom to share ideas, ideals, and ideology, is critical to human progress and social good. Society can only progress in technology and understandings generally, by the free flow of information. If Copernicus ideas had been successfully shut down by the rulers of the day, we would still believe that the earth is the centre of the universe. If Wilberforce had been silenced by the godless masses, who knows how much longer, black people would have been taken as slaves from Africa.
Free speech is necessary to challenge the dominant culture (political or religious), which often assumes its own correctness. As people did in Poland in the late 80s. Without it, we have only the beliefs of past teachers, parents, or governments to follow. Muslims must be free to share their religious thoughts and Christians must be free to share theirs as well.
Even the United Nations say that every person has the right to investigate religions and philosophies and convert. If there's a God more amazing than Jesus, (who fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, who walked on water, raised the dead and then rose from the dead himself, declaring that he had defeated death and reconciled us to God), I would want to be able to hear about it.
Thankfully in New Zealand, we have the Bill of Rights guaranteeing freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Of course we do not need the government to give us the right to speak - we have a divinely given right and responsibility to speak. Our heavenly Bill of Rights is Mark 16, where Jesus told us to go into all the world, preach the gospel, cast out devils, heal the sick, and tell everybody that the Kingdom of Heaven (His loving rule) is available.
Jesus assumed free and responsible speech. For Him, free speech means speech free from lies and unkindness. It also means freely sharing the good news with the world, in a manner that represents Him and His kingdom. Jesus spoke freely of His kingdom and exposed false kingdoms and He risked offending people to tell them the truth. As the God of Truth, He wants no person to suffer from false hopes, based on false gods and false beliefs.
We are blessed in NZ however one threat looms: To protect minorities from feeling offended, the Human Rights Commission is soon to introduce a new bill to criminalise disharmonious speech against minority religions. Although the Hon. Andrew Little said recently, “We already have laws to protect against "hate speech," …he thinks sanctions against the incitement of disharmony should now be extended to the area of religious faith.” While we all agree no one should be intentionally harmed by words, the law could easily morph into criminalising any comparison of Christ with Muhammad, Buddha or Moses, yet comparison of religions should be encouraged for all thinking people. It also could mean that a person could be criminalised just for making a person of another faith, feel bad. That the harm of ones speech is determined only by the subjective feelings of another. This could easily be abused.
People even took offense at Jesus' wise and perfect speech. Sometimes when we are told we are wrong in our beliefs or actions; we may take offense. Being made aware of the truth may be embarrassing but it is not harmful and always better in the end. I once drove up a one-way street in France the wrong way and had the locals shout at me. It was embarrassing to me, but I was grateful in the end. The truth sets us free!
Let us be clear-Jesus came as King of the universe, not to be King and Saviour of the Jews or the Christians but of all people, whether Christians, Muslim, Buddhist, Jews, or atheists. Therefore, all people deserve to hear that there is life beyond the grave, and that they can receive His gift of eternal life. All people need to know that Jesus died to gain their forgiveness and all people deserve the dignity, of being allowed to decide for themselves, whether they will accept Him or reject Him.