We must have the most unprincipled, illiberal crop of politicians ever to grace Westminster. Within hours of the House of Lords passing the Online Safety Bill, clamping down on freedom of speech online, Caroline Dinenage, chair of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, seemingly decided that due process should be next on the chopping block.
Yesterday, Dinenage wrote a letter to Rumble, a free-speech alternative to YouTube, demanding to know if Russell Brand was making any money from the videos he posts on the platform – and if so, whether or not the company was considering cutting that money off. Under the letterhead of her committee, sporting the emblem of the House of Commons, she effectively demanded that this tech firm deprive an alleged criminal of its services.
Following the appalling allegations against Brand, which include multiple acts of rape and sexual assault (which he denies), unearthed through a four-year joint investigation between the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches, YouTube ‘demonetised’ all of his videos, starving the actor-turned-conspiratorial-influencer of one of his key sources of revenue.
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