If you love free speech you Musk hate this Bill
THE Hate Speech Bill just got a lot more interesting – thanks to Elon Musk.
These sinister new laws are getting huge international attention but have been sailing under the radar at home.
If passed, they’ll make Ireland one of the most speech-restricted countries in the free world.
But we’ve been sleepwalking into passing them – they were voted through the Dail by a majority without much notice.
You don’t give too much thought to a freedom you enjoy, that’s the beauty of liberty. It’s just there. You only notice when it’s not.
The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 is currently stalled in the Seanad, but Justice Minister Helen Mcentee is determined to bring it into law this year.
The Hate Speech Bill makes it a crime to say anything, online or in person, that someone from a protected category “perceives” as offensive or hateful.
It allows the State increased powers to seize personal electronic devices and hand down prison sentences to those found in possession of material deemed hateful, even without intent to distribute it.
In effect, that makes it easy for gardai to enter your home and take control of everything you’ve been reading or posting on the internet in a hunt for an ill-defined offence.
It does not clarify what “hate” is – rendering it subjective, not objective.
It also reverses the age-old legal protection of the presumption of innocence, a cornerstone civilisation.
A person in possession of hateful material will “be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be in breach of an offence”.
This week, tech billionaire Musk, the richest man in the world, made us sit up and take notice, after adding his voice to the debate in an interview with Gript.
Musk said the new laws were an “attack on free speech, the bedrock of
of democracy”. He vowed to fund the legal cases of anyone who wanted to challenge the legislation.
He’s right. This Bill is less about hate speech and more about censorship. The proposed laws veer into totalitarianism and must be stopped.
The more I learn about them, the clearer it becomes that such legislation would be a disaster for Ireland.
Anyone who supports civil liberties understands they will do more harm than good.
We’re lucky to have the Seanad, to scrutinise such potentially explosive proposals.
This is what happens when ideology goes too far – Ireland started seeing itself as “progressive” and decided all the old things had to go.
We already have hate speech laws of course under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989.
We didn’t need to import an American idea for an American problem, where the First Amendment enshrines free speech as an absolute. Thankfully, there is pushback on the Bill from sincere politicians, campaigners and global voices who can see the dangers of it.
Senator Michael Mcdowell said it could cause chaos as it may lead to citizens arresting one another for perceived hate speech.
Even Fianna Fail politicians – the Government itself – have raised concerns with it.
Lisa Chambers, who is raising issues in the Seanad, said: “It went through the Dail unnoticed and then the emails started flooding in on it.
“We were never consulted on this Bill. We have issues with it.
“We’ve always had hate speech laws in this country and this seeks to broaden the grounds on which you can be accused of it.”
Internationally, Ireland is being watched closely as this is being seen as a test case.
It is Orwellian, Black Mirror, Prophet Song stuff.
But we’re inching into it unless true justice prevails.