Monday, April 28, 2025
Blog Page 12

Oxford study reveals support for online content moderation over freedom of speech

Iona Mandal
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Oxford study reveals support for online content moderation over freedom of speech

A global study recently conducted by the University of Oxford and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has shown that most people are in favour of imposing restrictions on negative online content, such as threats of violence and discriminatory content. 

Extensive research and surveys around the topic regulation of social media and freedom of expression, has revealed that 79% of respondents surveyed believe that online incitements to violence should be removed. A majority of US respondents also supported this but to a lesser extent, at 63%. 

Only 17% of respondents believed that users should be allowed to post discriminatory content which specifically attacks groups of people, highlighting a general support for the regulation of some online content. When asked to choose between an unregulated social media platform which prioritises freedom of speech, and one which is entirely devoid of hate speech or misinformation, most were in favour of the latter.

There were also differences in the question of where accountability should lie for creating safer spaces online. 39% of respondents in Brazil, Germany, and the UK believed that this responsibility should lie mainly with the platform operators. There were larger differences in survey responses in regard to support for government accountability for online spaces. For example, 37% German and French respondents supported state-initiated approaches, but only 14% did in Slovakia. 

In terms of sensitivity around abuse on social media, 59% of those surveyed believed that hate speech, disrespect and discrimination online were unavoidable. However, a large majority also believed that these platforms can be utilised as spaces of healthy discussion, with only 20% of respondents stating that rudeness is a necessary part of conveying opinions online. 

Despite this, Professor of Politics at Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations Spyros Kosmidis, said that “we do not necessarily have a universal consensus…people’s beliefs are strongly dependent on cultural norms, political experiences and legal traditions in the various countries. This makes global regulation more difficult.”

The study comes in the wake of important developments in online content regulation. Recently, Meta and X have relaxed regulations intended to restrict fake news and discriminatory content. Late last year, Australia became the first country in the world to ban social media for under 16 year-olds, with social media companies facing fines of up to £25.7m if they do not comply. Questions have been raised as to how easy such a policy will be to enforce and whether responsibility should lie with the social media platform or the operating system. 

Research conducted for Safer Internet Day 2024 has shown that while young people are enthusiastic about technological advancements, they require “conversation and better support.” The research also revealed that there is a lack of knowledge around the Online Safety Act 2023, which aims to hold social media companies more accountable for the content circulated on their platforms. 

Christ Church receives surprise Lewis Carroll collection from US philanthropist

Noah Robson
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Christ Church receives surprise Lewis Carroll collection from US philanthropist

A private collection containing thousands of letters, photographs, books, and illustrations by the author Lewis Carroll has been donated to Christ Church by an American businessman and philanthropist. Jon A. Lindseth gifted the college the unique collection, which also includes a number of early editions of his Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland books, some of which have personal inscriptions to family and friends.

Carroll spent most of his life at Christ Church, mainly as an academic specialising in mathematics. This is also where he met Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Dean at the time, who became the inspiration for the Alice novels. 

Lindseth has been an avid collector of Carroll, curating a number of exhibitions on his life works, as well as writing for journals dedicated to him. Gabriel Sewell, the College Librarian at Christ Church, told Cherwell that Lindseth “got in touch by email last July offering Christ Church his Lewis Carroll collection.

“It is very rare to receive such a large collection as a donation. We think it is the largest donation Christ Church Library has received since the eighteenth century. Lindseth’s collection is thought to have been the largest collection in private hands so it would be very difficult to build such a large and varied collection from scratch.”

One first edition copy in the collection of Alice’s Adventures Underground has a note to Alice’s mother, reading: “To Her, whose children’s smiles fed the narrator’s fancy and were his rich reward: from the Author. Xmas 1886.” There are also multiple letters from Carroll, with “many written at Christ Church in his distinctive purple ink,” according to Sewell.

In addition to numerous original writings, the donation came with over 100 photographs, with Carroll being an avid photographer as well as a writer, even going as far as to build a glass studio on the roof above his rooms at Christ Church. Images range from shots of Alice Liddell herself, to famed friends of Carroll’s, such as poet Alfred Lord Tennyson and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

The collection is on show at an exhibition in Christ Church’s upper library until 17th April, with this marking the first time it has ever been displayed in the UK. Sewell told Cherwell that Christ Church is “planning future exhibitions … and will consider lending material to exhibitions elsewhere, both in the UK and internationally”.

Oxford ranks fifth for UK councils with longest waiting times for social housing

Mair Andrews
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Oxford ranks fifth for UK councils with longest waiting times for social housing

People wait on average 5.2 years for social housing in Oxford, according to a homelessness charity called Crisis Skylight Oxford. Oxford City Council ranks fifth in the UK councils with the longest wait times, more than two years above the national average, and with over 3,400 people on the waiting list. 

In the UK, the average wait time for council housing is 2.9 years. Greater London came top with a 6.6-year average waiting time. The city council’s allocation scheme for council housing is based on how much people need a new home, rather than how long they have been on the register. Crisis Skylight Oxford say that they have around 20 new people registering for support each week.

Oxford Council Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, Linda Smith, said that “in recent years the cost of living, record private rent rises and the delay in delivering a ‘no fault’ eviction ban, first promised in 2019, have fuelled a sharp rise in homelessness across the country. Oxford is no exception.

“Together with a longstanding affordability crisis, this means most people wait years for general needs council housing and there is no guarantee of a council home however long you spend on the list.”

She added that since the relaxation of government borrowing restrictions in 2018, the Council has built hundreds of new council homes and the current budget includes funding for a further 1,600 council homes in the next eight years.

“We know this won’t be enough to meet needs but as the only council in Oxfordshire building new council homes, we know every single one can make a life-changing difference.”

Director at Crisis Skylight Oxford, Kate Crocker, said: “No one should have to live without a secure roof over their heads. But this is the reality for so many in Oxford, exacerbated by the rising cost of living and lack of social housing in the area.”

She reported that many families spend prolonged periods in unsuitable, temporary accommodation, and that children are being “robbed of their childhoods” by celebrating birthdays in inadequate living conditions. She called on government ministers to commit to increased funding for social housing. 

The data on waiting times was gathered in a Freedom of Information request sent to 387 UK councils by the Alan Boswell Group, unoccupied house insurance experts.

Councillor Linda Smith, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities told Cherwell: “We are doing what we can to ease Oxford’s housing crisis. Since the relaxation of government borrowing restrictions in 2018, we have built hundreds of new council homes. Our budget for 2025/26 includes funding for a further 1,600 council homes in the next eight years.

 “We know this won’t be enough to meet need. But as the only council in Oxfordshire building new council homes, we know every single one can make a life-changing difference.”

‘Hot Girl Hilary’ – A mid-term reflection on what this really means

Amy Lawson
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‘Hot Girl Hilary’ – A mid-term reflection on what this really means

Better late than never, right? It’s the sentiment which lies at the heart of every tutorial essay, every near-sprint to a looming lecture or class (maybe even this article). Oxford time is a tin of treacle which seems to weigh down every step taken or word written, until you’re gasping for breath at the knife-edge of the essay deadline. It’s the 5th week of term, and you don’t want to run out of steam, but there isn’t much left in the tank. 

So you keep your mind fixed on sunny Trinity days, clubcard G&T, and Pimms on the grass, which you may or may not have been told to ‘keep off’ during the winter terms. Exams or no exams, it doesn’t matter when nights out no longer require queuing at the cloakroom, and when your skin is finally soaking up the first baby sunbeams of what we like to call a ‘heatwave.’ Wavering like a mirage on the horizon is Hot Girl Summer, Hilary’s bronzed, carefree counterpart. Or, maybe you think about the end of term: back into the family fold, or not – back into bed at least, temporarily leaving behind the days where it feels as if you’re waking up as soon as your head hits the pillow. 

But don’t get ahead of yourself. Hot girls in Hilary pace themselves; they know it’s a marathon, not a sprint. They’re taking it day by day; they’ve got their planners, Notion databases and Google calendars, and are colour-coding their way to time-management heaven. Despite this planning, though, they know that the best approach to surviving this term is seeing the present, not the future, as the time which should be made the happiest, the most productive: deadlines may come and go, but at the end of the day, you can’t get a moment back. 

Hot girls in Hilary take what most people think of as the bleakest term of the year and give it a makeover: for them, it’s not just cosy winter ‘fits (read: not pyjamas in the library) and clean-girl makeup, but filling up their free hours with social activities they actually want to do, and meeting up with the people who make life flow just a little easier. They seek out wholesome parts of Oxford – the communities within each college and society, the little thrill of knowing there are actually other people out there who enjoy yapping about funk music or board games or bread (though, Bread Society, you’ve been rather quiet lately). They exercise – not in a toxic way, but actually for fun, and balance it out with karaoke and cheap college cocktails. 

Yet, they know their boundaries. Some nights are meant for Netflix and face masks, or phoning a friend. They’re not always aesthetic, either – sometimes it seems as though bubble baths are all too often swapped for the bubble of Oxford, with all its quirks and oddities, which can turn into a mire of social politics you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. But hot girls bounce back. And when they do get their reading done and their bop outfit sorted, it’s a glorious thing to behold. 

But here’s the twist. The Hot Girl Hilary herself doesn’t exist. She is a figment of all our imaginations – the girl we curate, often in the middle of the night, when planning to turn our lives around. We want to be her, be friends with her, even date her (or maybe all three). But perhaps it’s enough to simply smile when she passes by, knowing that, deep down, you’re just as hot as she is. 

Julie review – Free shots, toxic relationships, immersive theatre

Adam Saxon
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Julie review – Free shots, toxic relationships, immersive theatre

My ticket to see Julie resembled an invite to a birthday party, promising a live DJ and that I would be greeted by ‘partygoers’ upon entry to the Pilch. This was the first play I’ve ever been to where I was offered a ‘free shot’ on entry (I politely declined). Combined with the muted thumping of the DJ set spilling out of the Pilch, it added to the feeling of arriving at a lively house party.

I was a few minutes early to the show and one of the first people to enter. I was greeted by a stage flanked by a dance floor. Some of the cast members were eagerly getting into the DJ set, moving between the stage and the dance floor, clearly acting out the drunken latter stages of a house party. They encouraged me to get involved, dance, and generally enjoy myself. 

As this pre-show ‘party’ continued and more guests arrived, I began to lose track of which dancers were cast members and which were people here to see the show; the cast members glided effortlessly from group to group, remaining in character, asking people to dance with them, and repeating the question: have you seen Julie? – before drifting back over to the alcohol cupboard to grab another drink. 

Of course, generating an exciting atmosphere in such a situation relies on the audience being willing to get involved, though a strong cast would be expected to create an atmosphere in which being immersed feels like the default. They did this well, encouraging those who remained seated to come and dance, get involved and loosen up. Given this was opening night, too, I am sure they will develop new tricks to build the atmosphere as the week goes on. Overall it was a fun idea, and a novel approach that tests the boundaries of student theatre. Julie, though, is not for the faint of heart. Or the socially awkward.

The play itself does, admittedly, fall flat in some respects. The dialogue takes a while to get going, and while the most emotional scenes are delivered with passion and gusto, unfortunately some stretches of the play feel a tad dragged out. Much of this, though, probably falls at the feet of the writing of the play, an adaptation of Strindberg’s classic Miss Julie, and are complaints that have been levelled elsewhere. 

The lively pre-play atmosphere is also absent most of the way through, as much of the action takes place away from the main party and the music becomes muffled. Our one return to the lively houseparty, despite being well choreographed, does feel a tad random and out of place in the context of the story. Where it is used though, the music is used well; when it finally turns off, the silence we experience is an eerie reminder of the intimacy of the situation.

What Rosie Morgan-Males’ interpretation of Stenham’s play does do excellently though is use the Pilch’s space. We remain immersed in the party throughout, despite feeling like unwelcome onlookers on a private affair, via the ensemble’s occasional off-stage hysterics, which serve well to remind us of the secretive nature of the action we are looking in on. Further to this, the audience being on all sides means that Julie (Catherine Claire), Jean (Rufus Shutter), and Kristina (Hafeja Khanam) face an uphill battle to ensure that all onlookers get a true sense of what our characters are going through. They do well, constantly turning to face different corners of the audience – and the Pilch is a perfect venue for such a play so reliant on feeling close to the characters and their emotions. 

Special commendations must go to Khanam, who steals the show in her eviscerating monologue towards the end of the play. She captures excellently the frustration of the one character we feel some sympathy towards by the end of the night’s events. The chemistry between the characters throughout the play is also strong: Claire and Shutter, as the only two people present for most of the play, are convincing in their execution of the descent of their relationship into toxicity..

The play is a chaotic watch, too. Possibly in a similar vein to Saltburn, Julie plays on the stereotypes of the excesses of the upper classes, with its fair share of out of touch comments and jaw dropping scenes (don’t ask me what happens to Julie’s bird). All in all, Julie is fun and unique, and the take on Polly Stenham’s play provides an atmosphere that is a blast if you are willing to make the most of it. 

Royal Society of Medicine CEO Michele Acton elected St Hugh’s Principal

Charlie Bailey
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Royal Society of Medicine CEO Michele Acton elected St Hugh’s Principal

St Hugh’s College has announced that Michele Acton, the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), has been elected its new principal. She will adopt the role in September of this year. 

Michele Acton commented: “I am delighted and honoured to have been elected as the next principal of St Hugh’s College and to join a community that combines academic excellence with such a friendly, welcoming, and inclusive environment. Reducing the barriers to an Oxford education was the principle upon which the college was founded and it is one I will work hard to uphold.”

Acton began her career in investment banking after studying PPE at Trinity College. She has been Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Medicine since 2019, prior to which she worked as Chief Executive of Fight for Sight – a charity leading research nationally into eye health – for twelve years. 

Acton’s work at Fight for Sight oversaw the bringing together of two charities – Fight for Sight and the British Eye Research Foundation – together to form one national charity focused on addressing sight loss. By the end of her time there, Fight for Sight had an £8 million research commitment to scientists and healthcare professionals at over 40 universities and hospitals. 

Acton guided the implementation of the RSM’s new strategy for 2021-2026, a response to the intensified pressure placed on healthcare professionals by the pandemic which set out to transform every aspect of RSM’s work and membership. The strategy aimed to widen access to healthcare education resources using easily accessible online collections. 

St Hugh’s’ Senior Fellow and chair of the election process, Professor Adrian Moore FBA commented: “We are thrilled to have elected Michele Acton as our next Principal. Her successful leadership experience, her passion for education and research, and her combination of warmth and strategic vision are exactly the qualities St Hugh’s needs as it looks towards the 150th anniversary of its foundation in 2036.” 

Current Principal Lady Elish Angioloni KC described Acton as “an outstanding leader in the charity and academic sector”, stating that she “brings strong finance, strategic and fundraising experience to St Hugh’s”. Speaking about Lady Angiolini, Professor More commented “Elish has made friends wherever she has gone: we look forward to maintaining our own friendship with her, and we wish her well for the future”.

Labour must do more for student renters

Stanley Smith
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Labour must do more for student renters

One of the joys of being a second year at St Edmund Hall is making your first foray into the private rental sector. This year, as the bulk of the cohort ‘lives out’ in private accommodation, stories about the shoddiness of student houses have become a staple of college small talk. Tales of rats, mould, and leaking roofs are mixed in with the usual recruitment for Thursday nights in Bridge, complaints about deadlines and competitive comparisons of how little sleep everyone got. Taking the cake was the story from one group who moved into their home for the year to find a mural of naked presidents Trump and Putin painted on their living room wall. The response of their landlord when they asked what on earth it was doing there? “Oh yeah, I was going to cover that up, but I couldn’t be bothered”. 

But behind these comedic anecdotes is the much less funny reality: the state of the Oxford rental market is atrocious. The most pressing issue is the sheer cost  – the University estimates that students will be expected to pay between £745 and £945 in rent each month. This rapidly depletes maintenance loans, making the expectation that students avoid employment during term entirely unrealistic for those without financial support from their parents.  The massive demand and short supply also means private tenants have no bargaining power and are forced to accept the dodgiest of accommodations. Nor are these issues confined to the 2,500 Oxford University students who live out. As those at Wadham found out when it was announced last year that their rent would be going up by 10% over the summer vacation, enormous endowments do not insulate students from eye-watering costs. 

However, after fifteen years of business as usual, 2025 could be a year of change for Britain’s broken rental system. On the 15th of January, the House of Commons passed the new government’s Renters’ Rights Bill, expected to take effect this summer. It contains some substantial reforms supposed to provide safeguards for tenants. The key change is the abolition of Section 21 evictions, preventing landlords from reclaiming their property without justification. Instead, if they wish to repossess it for personal use or sale, they must provide tenants with four months’ notice. Perhaps more importantly, landlords have been restricted to raising rent once a year, and renters are given greater powers to challenge above ‘market rate’ rises in tribunals, without the fear of rent being backdated if the courts do not rule in their favour. 

So what does this do for student renters in Oxford? The answer, unfortunately, is not much. True to Starmer’s style as a diligent details man, it outlaws some of the worst practices and obvious legal shortcomings of the rental sector. The ban of Section 21 evictions is very welcome, on the mere principle that renters should not have to live with the constant fear of losing their shelter with little notice. But for students with reasonably secure yearlong contracts, however, this is not the principal issue. What Labour fails to recognise is that, even when landlords are on their best behaviour, the situation is untenable. There’s little use to courts that make sure rental increases are in line with market rates if those rates are themselves astronomical.

To put it simply, things won’t improve until there is more housing in Oxford. So, what are Labour’s plans for homebuilding, and will it be able to solve the issue? The government certainly seems to have big aspirations, promising 1.5 million new homes by the next parliament. Their ideas focus on reforming planning permission to increase approvals, which are at a record low, by permitting development on ‘grey’ sections of lower-quality land within the green belt.

There’s only one small issue – virtually everyone is in agreement that Labour’s commitment is a fantasy. Reforming planning permission may in theory allow for more projects to be approved, but the applications are simply not forthcoming. The handful of companies that dominate the market in the UK are keener to sit on the vast amounts of land that they have bought up than to take on the costly construction. This is because, as Barratt Developments explained whilst announcing it would reduce the number of homes it would build this year, a “combination of cost of living pressures, much higher mortgage rates and limited consumer confidence” had knocked out demand. Another jewel in the crown of Liz Truss’ impeccable legacy.

Nor do things look set to improve once inflation calms down. The homes being built are not necessarily designed for first-time buyers, whose numbers are dwindling as young couples remain trapped in costly rental agreements that hinder their ability to save. Whilst the government has committed to building more social housing, which used to make up the bulk of affordable accommodation in the UK, there are serious concerns about whether councils have the skills to do so after forty years of ‘Right to Buy’ preventing them from engaging in significant construction. 

This lack of serious solutions point to Labour’s biggest problem: its worrying lack of intellectual capital. In their time in opposition, Starmer and Co spent too long pointing out obvious Tory transgressions and not nearly long enough thinking about what they would do differently. The grand reveal of what fantastic policies lay behind the impenetrable promise of ‘change’ has been thoroughly fumbled. as the government contents itself with reheating many of the same policies which have been in place for well more than a decade. 

There are radical options out there which could improve the rental market for students – from measures to break up the oligarchic home building industry to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s proposal for councils to purchase rental units from landlords to rent out at below market rates. Assessing all the pros and cons of all of these is beyond me; I haven’t deluded myself into thinking I can fix the rental market in a thousand words. But you know who should be thoroughly examining these options? Our government. Until Labour starts thinking big, it looks like it will be more soaring prices, mould, and artistic depictions of naked authoritarians for Oxford’s student renters. 

Have an opinion on the points raised in this article? Send us a 150-word letter at [email protected] and see your response in our next print or online.

Cartoon: ‘The people’s Chancellor’

Selina Chen
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Cartoon: ‘The people’s Chancellor’

Selina Chen responds to Lord William Hague’s admission as Oxford University’s new Chancellor and his professed habit of checking Oxfess.

Have an opinion on the points raised in this cartoon? Send us a 150-word letter at [email protected] and see your response in our next print or online.

University launches new Centre for Democratic Resilience

Ben O'Brien
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University launches new Centre for Democratic Resilience

The launch of a Centre for Democratic Resilience has been announced by the University of Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR). The research centre will aim to understand and promote the resilience of liberal democracy in the context of rising authoritarian populism. 

Recent research shows that global freedom declined for the eighteenth year in a row in 2023 across all regions of the world and measures of democratic performance. The new Centre will seek to combat these trends by gaining a better understanding of the threats that authoritarian movements pose to liberal democracy and by working to promote greater democratic engagement around the world.

The Centre aims to produce cutting-edge empirical research using interdisciplinary technical expertise and data science to analyse threats to democracy at the societal, institutional, and international levels. This research will be used to develop concrete policy recommendations that can help policymakers, civil servants, and NGOs develop practical measures for strengthening liberal-democratic institutions and values.

The Centre is constituted with various different ‘policy labs’ which seek to provide flexible responses to urgent issues. They focus on four different areas: Social transformations, institutional innovation, international resilience, and observing authoritarianism. Between them they cover topics such as rapid shifts in voting behaviour, democratic engagement, multilateralism, and democratic sustainability. In collaboration with other research institutes, the Centre will develop early warning signals and intervention strategies to counteract democratic backsliding. 

Professor Petra Schleiter, Professor of Comparative Politics at the University and lead researcher at the Centre, said: “We have a proud tradition of leadership not just in education, but also in research, that sees us consistently ranked as ‘world leading’ in the UK and internationally. The Centre for Democratic Resilience is uniquely positioned to generate impactful research and forge vital collaborations to safeguard democracy in an era of growing uncertainty.

“This is one of the most defining challenges of our time. Our world-class research together with international partnerships will mean we can develop and implement impactful, agile, and scalable solutions to safeguard democracy for the future.”

Unboxing the past: Snapshots of self-reflection

Victoria McKinley-Smith
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Unboxing the past: Snapshots of self-reflection

My friends say I’m quite a nostalgic person. You name it, I’ve kept it. Concert tickets faded at the edges, postcards scribbled from far away places, love letters from a past that still lingers in ink. It’s all there, stashed away in a 6×8 Selfridge’s box given by someone I once held dear. The back of my phone is home to metro tickets from trips across Europe – scraps of memory preserved in flimsy plastic. My shoebox of a uni room is covered wall to wall with pictures of friends, family and holidays, offering comfort on days where the light shines less brightly. All around me are memories, reminding me of who I once was and who I have become.

Those who are fortunate enough to be subjected to my stream-of-consciousness-style Instagram posting, a concept to make even Virginia Woolf turn in her grave, know that they’re never safe from me and my trusty camera. Being the designated photographer friend means knowing the quiet trade-off: always the observer, rarely the subject. But this is part of the joy. These memories captured will last a lifetime, the smiles frozen mid-laughter, questionable bop outfits, and moments of pure chaos, all preserved for years to come.

But I’ve come to realise that these memories aren’t just windows into the past – they’re about preserving pieces of who we are now. Each ticket, photo and memento holds a moment of joy, a glimpse of growth and a connection to the people and places that have shaped us. In a world which never stops turning, these keepsakes provide a semblance of stability, serving as anchors connecting us to people, places, and feelings that might otherwise fade with time. These memories are not just our own, they belong to the people we share them with.

Through the lens of my camera or the slip of a metro ticket, these memories intertwine with the lives of others. As much as I love reminiscing, nostalgia isn’t just about clinging to the past, it’s about welcoming the future. With each new memory comes a new story to be told. Looking at the photos on my wall, I’m reminded of how much I’ve grown, how time has shaped me, and how the world around me continues to evolve. They are not just snapshots of what once was but reflections of change, evidence that every fleeting moment has led me to where I am now. Each photo holds a quiet reminder that the moments I once took for granted were shaping me in ways I never realised. Photographs aren’t just fragments of yesterday; they are stepping stones to the future, proof that life moves forward, and so must we.

So I’ll keep taking photos, until my box overflows and I must find another to fill.

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