Academic blocked from giving civil service talk because of criticism of government
A UK academic has said she was blocked from giving a talk to a government department because she had previously criticised government policies.
Dr Kate Devlin, a reader in artificial intelligence and society at King’s College London, said she was due to give a talk to a civil service network within a government department on Monday relating to women in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem).
The event was arranged to tie in with Ada Lovelace Day on Tuesday – a celebration of women in these fields. About 10 days ago, however, Devlin was informed that she was no longer invited to speak.
“I was told that because I had criticised government policy on social media previously, I wouldn’t be permitted to come and speak,” she told the Guardian.
The Guardian has seen emails confirming the withdrawal of the invitation, and the reason given. Writing on Twitter, Devlin said she was told in advance that the government department would do due diligence on her social media.
“I am openly critical of some govt policies: I’m a board member of the @OpenRightsGroup and, as such, I am opposed to the online harms bill in its current form,” Devlin tweeted, adding that her criticism came from years of research, and was not confined to the current government.
Devlin told the Guardian she was struck by the irony of the invitation being withdrawn, given that the government is backing the higher education freedom of expression bill to protect expression and debate on campus. She also noted that the topic of her talk had nothing to do with any government policy.
“This is a very draconian approach and, if they [the government] are in favour of freedom of expression, then they should stand by that,” said Devlin. “There is law in place that says we should not have speakers who incite harm or violence or discrimination, but this was not that.”
The government said it would look into the matter but it was for each department to carry out due diligence on external speakers. It also noted the civil service code requires political impartiality and this necessarily restricts some activity, compared to the general public.
It is not the first time the government has been accused of blocking academics from giving lectures.
Last year Prof Priyamvada Gopal, an expert in post-colonial studies at the University of Cambridge, was invited to talk to government officials about her view that her department’s policies are linked with colonial history.
However, she said, the invitation was withdrawn at short notice after an old social media post criticising then home secretary Priti Patel came to light.
No mention was made of the post by the Home Office adviser in the cancellation message.