With her luster dimming at home, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is trying out her professional scold routine in front of a world audience, perhaps preparing for a role at some international body. Key to that shift is her belief that this whole free speech thing is a menace, and something should be done about it, preferably around the globe. As it turns out, she has a whole pro-censorship project ready to go for a career reboot after electoral politics.
"A bullet takes a life. A bomb takes out a whole village. A lie online or from a podium does not," Ardern told the U.N. General Assembly in September. "But what if that lie, told repeatedly, and across many platforms, prompts, inspires, or motivates others to take up arms. To threaten the security of others. To turn a blind eye to atrocities, or worse, to become complicit in them. What then?"
