 suggested that the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN) helped to protect 'brand safety'. In a letter to the Prime Minister, the parliamentarians describe the department's citing of CAN as 'worrying', adding: 'We urge the government to distance itself from this group.' David Davis, the former Brexit secretary , added: 'It is not for officials at DCMS to encourage a proxy cancel culture by nominating private agencies like the Conscious Advertising Network as arbiters of vague and misleading concepts like 'brand safety' - particularly if those agencies have a history of partisan behaviour. 'The government should learn from the debanking example, that encouraging corporates to behave in this way is a formula for abuse of power in pursuit of virtue signalling objectives - pernicious, furtive, and dangerous for free speech .' Boycotts against news outlets One of CAN's co-founders, Jake Dubbins, was an 'unpaid advisor' to Stop Funding Hate, and the pressure group helped to draft CAN's code on hate speech. Stop Funding Hate has led boycotts against news outlets such as the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, the Sun and GB News. The letter, signed by 46 Tory MPs and peers including former home secretary Dame Priti Patel and former prime minister Liz Truss, claims that CAN employed 'the same insidious tactics as Stonewall'. It added: 'CAN was founded by members of the controversial political campaign group Stop Funding Hate, and intimidates and bullies companies into boycotting news outlets. 'This is having a chilling effect on free speech and media plurality. As more and more companies feel that they have no choice but to bend the knee){kind=link}
In a letter to the Prime Minister, 46 parliamentarians are asking the government to distance itself from the Conscious Advertising Network
The Government’s culture department is at the centre of a row over “cancel culture” after promoting a campaign linked to activists orchestrating boycotts of centre-Right media outlets.
Almost 50 Conservative MPs and peers have urged Rishi Sunak to intervene after a consultation document issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) suggested that the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN) helped to protect “brand safety”.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the parliamentarians describe the department’s citing of CAN as “worrying”, adding: “We urge the government to distance itself from this group.”
David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, added: “It is not for officials at DCMS to encourage a proxy cancel culture by nominating private agencies like the Conscious Advertising Network as arbiters of vague and misleading concepts like ‘brand safety’ – particularly if those agencies have a history of partisan behaviour.