Kyle Matthews
@kylermatthews.bsky.social
260 followers 150 following 680 posts
Research fellow at He Whenua Taurikura. Research the far right, Atlas network, free speech/hate speech, and radical social movements across the political spectrum. He/him. https://people.wgtn.ac.nz/kyle.matthews
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kylermatthews.bsky.social
No doubt she is on a contract rather than an employee, so losing her job for engaging in legal free expression will be legal. Cmon FSU, speak up.
kylermatthews.bsky.social
Yeah. I don’t object to property damage as a tactic (I’d struggle to justify damaging a private residence) but if this is an activist the timing is awful.
kylermatthews.bsky.social
Derby doing some impressive contortions to bridge the reality of hate speech and the FSU’s fanatical approach to it.
kylermatthews.bsky.social
kylermatthews.bsky.social
If it feels like the right to protest is under threat then this event is for you! Come watch Operation 8 and learn about contemporary threats to protest rights.
www.facebook.com/share/1DD1UQ...
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kylermatthews.bsky.social
Possible threats you are feeling include: proposed legislation to limit the protest outside houses, Independent Police Conduct Authority reports that propose the police being able to veto protest plans, and the government doing secret consultations to change how we define and ban terrorists.
kylermatthews.bsky.social
If it feels like the right to protest is under threat then this event is for you! Come watch Operation 8 and learn about contemporary threats to protest rights.
www.facebook.com/share/1DD1UQ...
Redirecting...
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kylermatthews.bsky.social
Sure that's a valid response. I guess I'm contrasting your lawyer's perception of where this impacts lightly with my sociological one where it feels less concrete and more slippery (but still not a five alarm fire).
kylermatthews.bsky.social
Protect Protest: Campaign launch and screening of the film Operation 8: www.facebook.com/share/1CvxGo...
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kylermatthews.bsky.social
I guess I'm suggesting it can be both limited in how it the courts interpret it and still have power. For every Morse and Booker there is hundreds of John/Jane Does who are facing state power without reaching the protection of the courts. We have to consider bills with them in mind as well.
kylermatthews.bsky.social
My point is that for this Bill, along with all laws, there's a big space between how the courts will interpret it and how that works in practice. There's a signal being sent here which police enact and they don't always have to be accountable to the courts or other safeguards.
kylermatthews.bsky.social
eg. a police officer threaten to arrest me and others for trespass from land over which he had no authority over (it was city council land, he was acting for Kiwirail). I pointed this out and he said "well you're welcome to apply that defence in court after I arrest you". We moved and he won.
kylermatthews.bsky.social
Yes, but I think the distinction between what is prosecutable, and what the police can bully you into is an important distinction. Particularly given the consequences for their overreach are, at best, a gentle slap on the wrist, and the consequences for protesters are chilling or expensive at best.
kylermatthews.bsky.social
Shame 16 year olds can’t vote. Punching down on young people is so much easier when you limit their ability to punish you in response.
kylermatthews.bsky.social
Uk really going all in on ‘this over-the-top policing of protest isn’t working well but we should double-down and keep diving into this anti-democratic hole’.
islingtonxr.bsky.social
Police to get new powers to target repeated protests, aimed particularly at cracking down on demonstrations connected to #Gaza

So the government plans to curtail the #humanrights of British citizens to protect a foreign state committing #genocide

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Police to get new powers to crack down on repeated protests, says Home Office
Move follows arrest of almost 500 people at latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday
www.theguardian.com
kylermatthews.bsky.social
We've seen this in the US where weapons systems have been funded because they have economic benefits for regions which have important votes. It's a dark path and part of demilitarising our society not only means ending the military, but ending the economic and political systems that help drive them.
kylermatthews.bsky.social
One of the ways that our society is militarised is by going beyond 'we need these weapons to defend ourselves' (and of course we defend ourselves over there, so we invade countries) to 'military is an important part of economy, jobs, and political systems': www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
Government unveils strategy for the defence industry
The plan will lift New Zealand's defence spending to more than 2 percent in the next eight years with the Defence Minister seeking to have New Zealand develop weapons for export.
www.rnz.co.nz
Reposted by Kyle Matthews
pault.bsky.social
*BREAKING: PLEASE REPOST*

The Media Council has upheld complaints against RNZ, finding that the article about Alex lacked balance and failed to present alternative perspectives, particularly once information about Alex's own voice became publicly available.

www.mediacouncil.org.nz/rulings/park...
Parker et al against Radio New Zealand
If you have a complaint about the editorial content of a newspaper, magazine or periodical in circulation in New Zealand (including their websites) you may complain to the Media Council.
www.mediacouncil.org.nz
kylermatthews.bsky.social
So this. Ending material deprivation in society fixes so much.
rebeccasear.bsky.social
"it’s material deprivation, not social diversity, that threatens to tear the social fabric. Perhaps it’s harder to have trust when you’re competing for resources. Whatever the cause, the solution seems to lie less in measures to limit immigration than in investment to tackle poverty and inequality"
Is there a trade-off between diversity and social cohesion? - Understanding Society
Material deprivation, not social diversity, threatens to stretch and tear the social fabric diversity and social cohesion
www.understandingsociety.ac.uk