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LAST UPDATE | 15 Aug 2018
THE FOUNDER OF the Lisbon Web Summit has withdrawn an invite for French far-right leader Marine Le Pen to its annual tech conference later this year, after earlier defending the decision to invite her to the event.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Le Pen – who is president of the National Rally party – would appear at the event, which will be held in the Portuguese capital from 5-8 November.
The move proved controversial in a country where a far-right dictatorship was in place until 1974.
Changing mind
In a series of tweets this afternoon, Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave said it was “now clear” to him that the correct decision was to rescind Le Pen’s invitation.
“Based on advice we have received and the large reaction online overnight, her presence is disrespectful in particular to our host country,” Cosgrave said. “It is also disrespectful to some of the many tens of thousands of attendees who join us from around the world.”
He said that, in future, the Web Summit would approach issues of hate, freedom of expression and platform technologies “with more care”.
Cosgrave added that the summit had added private and public stages “specifically for robust dialogue on contentious and defining issues of our time”, but added “we’ve still much to learn”.
Earlier
In a web-post written last night, Cosgrave admitted that while he felt Le Pen’s views were “wrongheaded”, he believed that they would be adequately challenged by “professional journalist” at the event.
Citing the fundamental right to free speech, he said: “Web Summit is a place where people should be prepared to have their opinions deeply challenged, and in turn to deeply challenge the opinions of others.”
He also said that more than 30% of French voters selected Le Pen to be their candidate in last year’s presidential election, and argued that “banning or attempting to ignore” her views would do little to address the cause of why they exist.
“Ultimately the easy decision is to turn Web Summit into a commercially safe space by precluding views, both economic and political, that may cause offense to our commercial partners and other stakeholders,” he added.
“Excluding those who are “too socialist” or “too nationalistic” or “too extreme” from Web Summit would, I assure you, be a very easy and very pragmatic decision for us to take as a business.”
However, Cosgrave also said that if the Portuguese government asked the summit’s organisers to cancel Le Pen’s invitation, they would “of course respect that request” and do so immediately.
Last year, Cosgrave was forced to apologise after Portugal’s Prime Minister criticised him for holding an “offensive” dinner at Lisbon’s National Pantheon, where a number of the country’s important national figures are buried.
There was also controversy in 2016 when a number of people who had paid up to €5,000 for tickets to the conference were forced to watch events from screens outside.
With reporting from Sean Murray
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What about working individual and family? Where is there increase, you know, the very people of working age who go out and keep the country financed.
@Tipper Irie: Tax cuts have been mentioned.
@Tipper Irie: Be prepared to keep being a tax payer, I’m 70 on a state pension and have to work to top it up
@Colm Kane: always mentioned, but usually smoke, mirrors and clever maths result in a different outcome.
@Tipper Irie: Don’t forget that most pensioners worked and paid taxes all their lives and still do. Of course the current working people and families deserve to be locked after.
The Government trying to scrape back votes before the next GE by the looks of it.
You’d swear there is an election on the horizon
@Brian Madden: I’d say you’re right. Probably that’s why Joan Collins (right 2change) raised the issue in the Dáil today and pressed Varadkar about it….
Ahh Leo….more money for the wealthiest demographic in the country
Try theses (Bertie) manoeuvres all you want but your heading for oblivion
@David Cotter: Those on a state pension are not wealthy.
Proportional increases to the state pension are scandalous. How can it be right to increase the top rate by €12 but pensioners on a lower amount receive as little as €9 or less. If the pension is increased by a euro amount, then all pensioners should receive it.
@Deirdre Fitzpatrick: Yes the Bonkers Pension Systems Victims throw under the bus as usual
Leo the liar strikes again.
Trying to buy votes, too little to late. Bye bye
Open comments on the roscommon case, are ye afraid of something.
Please no more. The increase will not come into effect for 8 months.
So we will have endless bollix talk of will it be 5 or the cost of living multiplied by r squared and age action saying it should be a trillion billion and when we are all worn out it will turn out to be less than the price of a pint in Temple Bar.
Please sir, may I have some more?
MORE?
How is this news? The pension has increased virtually every budget since the foundation of the State.
More wobble talk for Leo. Of course there will be an increase, the cost of living has gone through the roof. But this fella wants you to think it was his idea. Spoofer
Could we just get back the levy they took off our pension!!?
FO Leo!
Vote buying begins, with your money and you’ll be paying for it forever!
Leo is not loyal to the Irish people or the Irish republic.
Won’t vote for you even though!
I love Leo. Please have my babies Leo.
Will it be too late to save them?
Hopefully not..
Election next year and a raft of retirements from the front benches this year
For those who’s comments are being deleted by the shadow banners and thejournal.ie
Stop replying to people directly…start new threads when you reply…this means the shadow banners have more work to delete comments individually instead of an entire thread…make as much work as possible for them so they can’t cover all posts…
Copy your post and when they delete it repost it…if and when they get you banned set up another account…
Make it impossible to cover all comments that many will end up staying up…they will also have to search for your comments to mass false report them….
Also if thejournal.ie is blocking certain reposts just change a few letters one in a few words here and their with the letter x…or anything just once theirs some minor changes it will repost…and always when reposting make these minor changes each repost….I think theirs an algorithm that gets alerted to the post deleted and the eventually bans the user….so slightly modify each repost….
Delete your cookies to reduce targeted mass false deleting and thejournal.ie algorithm associating your account to those deletes….which helps insidious and maliciously delete comments…
The establishment loyalist fascist shadow banners and thejournal.ie are in full steam ahead insidious and malicious deleting of comments that dont tow the line and follow the establishment narrative…
Their you have folks….I’ve just proved that theirs a insidious and malicious subset of users on here mass false reporting other users to in order to suppress others and censor you…because they’ve decided their judge, jurry and executioner of what people can and cannot say….their long time users many of them in this insidious and malicious group…they always comment with glee that people’s comments won’t last and when a comment is deleted the comment with such glee again….
Thejournal.ie needs to permanently ban these people….Thejournal.ie knows who they are and how the harresed many on here deleting their comments and getting people banned…
I personally have had multiple different attacks on me by these people in their campaign of harresment…I’ve had veiled threats made against…I’ve had my IP attacked….I’ve must have had 3/4 of my comments deleted…I’ve been banned nearly 80 times because of them…they’ve insulted me from the very moment I expressed an opinion they despised and then treated me with derision…
These are sick people that thejournal.ie needs to deal with…
This comment section should be a place of free and open discussion once the comments fall with in the guidelines….
have your say