Documentary calling Leeds Uni ‘UK’s most censorious campus’ slammed for ‘clickbait’ tactics

This story was edited as of December 31st

A documentary calling the University of Leeds the UK’s “most censorious campus” has been criticised for its supposed “clickbait” tactics.

YouTuber and former Leeds student Andrew Gold released a video titled: “I Investigated the UK’s Most Censorious Campus”, which alleged the University of Leeds stifles free speech.

However, a student interviewed for the documentary has told The Leeds Tab she feels she’s been misrepresented during editing.

The 22-minute video focuses on the suspension of Connie Shaw from Leeds Student Radio (LSR) following her production of gender-critical content. The documentary features interviews with Connie, as well as other students, including Khadija Allouch.

Andrew has since denied editing the video to misrepresent Khadija, instead claiming that him and his team “tried to make Khadija more, not less, reasonable.”

He told The Leeds Tab: “I made efforts to present those ‘on the other side’ as reasonable or rational.”

The YouTuber emphasised to The Leeds Tab efforts by his team to portray Khadija and others fairly, highlighting moments where people whose views were “on the other side” were shown as “reasonable and rational”. Examples of this included Joe playing pool, or the man in the copper coat who critiqued Connie’s GB News appearance.

In the documentary, Andrew refers to the University of Leeds as “the UK’s most censorious campus, where speaking your mind costs you your job and even your freedom.”

He questions whether students believe Connie’s removal from LSR was justified, viewing it as an example of censorship in the university.

Sociology student, Khadija, 24, claims the video had been edited to misrepresent her views and implies she wants to incite violence against Connie, which she strongly denies.

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Khadija believes everyone, including transgender people, should be given the freedom to live their lives how they choose to. She criticises the idea that there is anything to “debate” when it comes to gender identity.

In response to this, Andrew said: “My video is about a censorial university campus…and Khadija criticises the idea there’s anything to debate around gender identity.”

Speaking to The Leeds Tab, Khadija said: “I think I underestimated the power of editing.”

Andrew categorically denies any intention of his video to incite violence, saying: “I strongly deny that the video intends to show that Khadija wants to incite violence against Connie. However, she told me she can understand why many people wish to.”

In the thumbnail of the video, Khadija is pictured pointing at Connie, accompanied by the words: “I would love to do this to you”. This statement can’t be heard during the video and Khadija said it was never uttered by her at all, calling it “a clickbait title.”

The image Khadija calls a “clickbait title” via YouTube

She believes those word choices imply that she wishes to enact physical harm against Connie. Explaining that he would amend this phrasing, Andrew later said: “I’ll add a note to the description to ensure people don’t think she wanted to hurt Connie.”

Khadija alleged that during filming, Andrew introduced her to Connie by saying:“This girl [Khadija] just said that you deserve all the violent threats that have been sent your way.”

Khadija denied making this statement and said it misrepresented her stance.

Reflecting on why people may have sent violent threats to Connie, Khadija said: “I told Andrew I can understand why people may have responded that way, but I don’t condone it.

“I would be horrified if someone came over and hurt Connie, and I said that categorically in front of them both.”

The sociology student added: “I just can’t believe the power of editing because it looks like, without a doubt, that I want Connie beaten up, despite believing Connie shouldn’t be hurt in any way, shape or form.”

In response to this, Andrew said: “I clearly explained that Khadija was wrong. The video shows the moment that Connie and Khadija met. My cameraman was far away and tried subtly approaching us to capture this meeting.

“I introduced them by saying—as is shown on camera—’You were just saying you can understand why people would be violent to Connie.’

“You must understand that Khadija came bounding down to confront Connie, having heard about my filming the night before.”

Also in the video, Khadija drew upon an academic research paper on male and female brains. This followed a “quick search” the night before she attended the filming to ensure she cited scientific papers.

Khadija explained she felt strongly about her views on transgender rights but knew she needed empirical evidence to draw upon if she was to convince others of her argument: “I was panicking to find something credible because I don’t need to convince myself, I need to convince them.”

The citing of this paper has led to accusations online that Khadija is a traitor to her sex because the research has reportedly been debunked since its publication.

via YouTube

Khadija expressed feeling especially hurt by these accusations because she feels she did the limited research she was able to do under time constraints. She said she “can absolutely see where [she] went wrong” but trusted in an academic paper, which she states doesn’t imply she holds anti-feminist or misogynistic views.

Because of perceived bad-faith editing, Khadija claims there are now people in comment sections arguing over “things that aren’t real”.

Referring to commenters criticising inciting violence against Connie, Khadija said: “It’s like, well, yes, I would agree with these people that it’s bad to incite violence, too.”

Khadija also highlighted how she believes her comments on spirituality were selectively edited to make her seem less credible.

“It was this perfect editing moment. He [Andrew] doesn’t show all of it because I end my speech by saying I do let my spirituality influence me, but I am just as scientific as Connie.

“And I said to Connie we probably have the same opinions about tons of things. I mean, we’re both feminists.”

During filming, as Khadija speaks about her beliefs, Andrews’s voiceover is heard saying: “At last, it looked like we’d reached an understanding…it didn’t last long.”

Khadija feels the documentary used her beliefs as a tool to discredit her, evoking stereotypes around the perceived naivety or out-of-touch practices associated with spirituality: “It just tears down any slight credibility I had because it just seems like I’m stupid and spiritual and believe in things that aren’t there.

“They took my personal spirituality and used it against me, even though its nothing to do with trans people.”

In response to this, Andrew denied remarks about Khadija’s spirituality being used to undermine her and said that Khadija “has the part about reaching an understanding all wrong.” He said it was intended to show he hoped “an olive branch” was being extended by Khadija, with his ultimate goal being for “people to understand each other better.”

Khadija also expressed resentment toward a question Andrew posed during filming, when he asked the student: “Do you think it’s worse to misgender someone or punch them in the face?”

Khadija told The Leeds Tab: “I said I can’t give you [Andrew] an answer because, for example, if a transgender person fought their entire lives for their pronouns to be respected […] then yes, they would probably rather get punched in the face.

“But in the same breath, someone who may have had a lot of trauma related to violence may rather be misgendered than punched.

“It’s completely contextual.”

Khadija believes the line of questioning was designed to make her contradict herself and “trip up”.

“If it was an open debate, there wouldn’t be questions that were trying to manipulate what I said,” she added.

Andrew has since branded this particular question as “pretty key to the debate about words versus violence”. He said: “As to the difficult question about whether someone would rather be punched or misgendered, you’d surely agree it is pretty key to the debate about words versus violence.

“I asked many people the same question. It would be strange not to. The fact she found it difficult to answer shows exactly why that question is interesting.”

Despite claims in the documentary that students at Leeds must adhere to specific viewpoints, Khadija says she hears a range of opinions at the university: “There are students with a range of belief systems, ideologies and opinions, and I hear numerous viewpoints in a single seminar alone.”

Khadija also disputes Connie’s argument that her removal from LSR equates to censorship, which is a central argument of the documentary: “Censorship is silencing someone’s ability to speak, but Connie’s expressed her views on a national scale.

“If the university were censoring her, they’d expel or remove her.

“Connie was removed from a tiny space in a massive uni because someone hateful shouldn’t be in a space where minorities are discussed, and it’s important they have that space.”

She added: “I have no problem if Connie wants to discuss her anti-trans views around the dinner table or at a pub with like-minded individuals. My problem is with this opinion reaching the trans community and doing horrific amounts of damage.”

via Khadija Allouch

Khadija argued that rhetoric like Connie’s can harm vulnerable groups: “Trans people are one of the most precarious and vulnerable groups in our society because they’re deemed not real and not valid. It’s when this rhetoric is going directly to the people you are hating against that it becomes harmful.”

Khadija said she attended the documentary filming because she feels “incredibly passionate about the concept of free speech versus hate speech” but believes the documentary wasn’t about ensuring diversity of opinion.

She added: “They’re not just misrepresenting me; they’re controlling a narrative.”

Connie told The Leeds Tab that while statements she made during filming were also cut out, she doesn’t feel misrepresented: “The whole conversation was around half an hour, so of course I couldn’t have everything I said represented, but I don’t feel misrepresented.”

Andrew compared Khadija’s complaints to those often made by extremists in documentaries by Louis Theroux and books by Jon Ronson, noting: “That’s just what journalists have to deal with.”

Andrew also said Khadija rarely allowed Connie to respond during filming, which Khadija denies.

Andrew denied remarks about Khadija’s spirituality being used to undermine her. He said about Khadija: “She has the part about reaching an understanding wrong. The spirituality part was not included to undermine her but to show that it sounded like she was for the first time stretching out an olive branch.

“I hoped at that point that she’d be in a position to see things from Connie’s perspective, even if they disagreed – which would be a nice moment – as you can see from the tone of the rest of the video, my goal is to make people understand each other better.

Andrew noted that “it didn’t last long” because Khadija then continued saying Connie has no empathy: “But ‘it didn’t last long’ because she then continued saying Connie has no empathy – something for which she has no basis and which is, of course, a sign of a lack of empathy in itself.”

He also addressed Khadija’s allegation that he introduced her to Connie by saying: “This girl just said that you deserve all the violent threats sent your way.” Andrew pointed to footage of their meeting, where he said: “You were just saying you can understand why people would be violent to Connie” because Khadija “does say she understands why they’d do it.”

He further explained: “That is true. She does say she understands why they’d do it. This is the moment they meet – which is why my cameraman is so far away when they start speaking – so I can’t have said what she claims about violent threats.”

Regarding the implication that Khadija wants to incite violence, Andrew added he’s “sorry” and that “this did not cross [his] mind”.

He continued: “The initial thumbnail said I Would Love to Expel You because she says she would love it. But my team felt ‘expel’ was too-university specific and might not attract a wider audience.

“I’ll add a note to the description to ensure people don’t think she wanted to hurt Connie.”

Referring to Andrew’s comment that Khadija wanted to expel Connie, she told The Leeds Tab she doesn’t think Connie should be expelled. This is because Khadija said she believes “everyone should have access to an education”, which the student claims she told Andrew during filming.

“I said because of my anger I would have liked to see it [Connie’s expulsion] but I don’t actually think they should go ahead and do it.”

It is the radio specifically that Khadija believes Connie should be suspended from, but clarified she doesn’t advocate for Connie’s removal from the university itself.

The University of Leeds has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Featured image via YouTube