This January, the online magazine spiked published its Free Speech University Rankings, finding that 90% of universities censored speech, up from 80% in last year’s rankings, and that the vast majority of this was carried out by students’ unions. No Platform policies, which originally banned fascist speakers, are now used to ‘protect’ students from a wide range of controversial ideas, and not only right-wing ones; even feminist speakers have been disinvited because some students objected to their views. Filmed at the Battle of Ideas as part of the “Feminism and its Discontents” strand of debates, the panel discuss this growing hostility towards free speech on campus and also interrogate the wider social trends that underpin it.
