Is Stop Funding Hate an attack on free speech?

Stop Stop Funding Hate, says Brendan O’Neill for The Spectator:

SFH’s agitation to pull ads from newspapers is not some simple, good, happy-clappy act of consumer caring. It’s the attempted use of financial power to whack tabloid freedom in a similar way to how the FBI and African dictators once sought to harm the radical press. And like all efforts at press censorship throughout history it is motored by a profound distrust in, even disgust for, ordinary people.

It’s a challenging and alternative take on the campaign that has already led to Lego and the Daily Mail parting company. I don’t really agree with his argument – I’m not convinced that using free speech is inherently removing free speech from corporations to publish what they want – but there is something mildly unsettling about trying to shut down news outlets because you disagree with their message, however distasteful you might find that message.

(Yes, that headline confirms nicely to Betteridge’s Law.)