Toby Young delivers annual Contrarian Prize Lecture at Bayes Business School

Efforts to censor misinformation, disinformation and hate speech are addressing a largely imaginary crisis, nearly always backfire by drawing attention to the content being censored, and assume that governments and non-governmental agencies are trustworthy judges of what to censor, claimed Toby Young, social commentator and General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, as he delivered the 2023 Contrarian Prize Lecture at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass).

Addressing an audience of students and alumni, members of the Free Speech Union, journalists and City practitioners, Mr Young examined the conflict that exists between the right to freedom of speech and efforts to limit the spread of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.

Mr Young’s arguments included how social media platforms’ removal of content supposedly containing these not only fails to suppress interest in the claims or view being expressed, but often has the opposite effect, a phenomenon he likened to the ‘Streisand effect’.

Mr Young cited the conspiracy theory known as ‘the steal’ as evidence that suppression does not work, with the number of Americans saying they believe the 2020 US Presidential election was ‘stolen’ from Donald Trump slightly increasing after a concerted effort was made on social media platforms to suppress it. He argued that users of social media should be given the tools to be their own content moderators, as the best judges of what information is likely to cause them harm.

The Contrarian Prize was established to “recognise the independence, courage and sacrifice of British public figures whose ideas challenge the status quo”. The prize, awarded biennially by a panel, was founded by Ali Miraj, columnist and broadcaster.

The winner of the Contrarian Prize delivers a lecture, which Bayes has hosted since the prize was founded in 2012.

Responding to Mr Young’s lecture were Dr Mark Honigsbaum, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at City, University of London’s Department of Journalism, and Jemima Kelly, Columnist at the Financial Times, which provoked a lively discussion hosted by Cindy Yu, Assistant Editor of The Spectator magazine.

The panel then took questions from the audience on both sides of the debate.

On delivering the Contrarian Prize Lecture, Toby Young said:

“I am grateful to Ali Miraj and the judges of the Contrarian Prize for recognising me in this way, and to Bayes Business School for hosting my lecture.

“I thought it was an excellent event, with lots of challenging questions, both from the respondents and the audience.”

Ms Kelly and Dr Honigsbaum countered Mr Young’s arguments about the role of misinformation spread and questioned the validity around the effects of censoring contrarian voices.

Dr Honigsbaum said:

"I applaud Ali Miraj for inviting me to respond to Toby Young at the Contrarian Prize debate, thereby demonstrating that academic freedom is alive and well at City, University of London and Bayes.

“Though Toby and I disagree about many things, one thing we both agree on is the need for more, and freer speech."

Ali Miraj said:

“The right to challenge the status quo and voice alternative points of view continues to come under threat across the world.

“Supposedly objectionable points of view are being shut down and those expressing them are facing public vilification.

“Toby Young, as holder of the Contrarian Prize, is an example of somebody in this position – having seen himself censored for expressing views on sensitive subjects such as the Covid vaccine programme. He delivered an important speech about the unintended consequences of shutting down contrary opinions, and why it is important to hear all sides of an argument.

“My thanks go to Bayes Business School and our speakers for the evening, for once again providing such an important debate.”

Professor André Spicer, Dean, Bayes Business School, said:

“At Bayes we encourage our students and colleagues to challenge norms each day, and do our best to uphold freedom of speech. That is why hosting events like the Contrarian Prize is so important to us.

“Freedom of speech in business is becoming an increasingly pertinent issue, as highlighted by recent events concerning NatWest. With increasing conversation around the issue, I believe we are now we are seeing the emergence of experts on the topic and this will likely be followed by consultants and specialist departments in corporations that are charged with keeping track of freedom of speech issues.

“My thanks go to Mr Young and his respondents for providing such an energetic discussion here at Bayes.”