Hate speech online will become a criminal offence under proposed legislation.
But there will be a high tolerance before any prosecution.
Irish Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has revealed the findings of a consultation on Hate Speech and Hate Crime.
And she is expected to launch legislation within the next three months and curtail at least some of the internet’s wild west of incitement and hatred.
The world should watch the progression of this Bill.
So many people, like me, who use freedom of speech to lampoon, irritate, ridicule and expose liars and cheats in power see it as an enshrinement of liberty.
Freedom of speech is there to protect people of all races, creed, religion and political persuasion.
The new Bill repeals the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 because it is no longer fit for purpose and needs bringing in to the cyber-led 21st century.
The proposed legislation aims to tackle online speech that is racist, abusive to religion, gender expression, gender itself, Travellers and disabled people.
It will be there to protect freedom of speech and social media outfits if they prove they took reasonable action to prevent the publishing of irrational and dangerous attacks.
And attacks by the right, the left and the middle-ground will all have to face the responsibility of what they say.
It is expected too to contain protection for freedom of expression, reasonable and genuine contributions to literary, artistic, political, scientific or academic discourse, and fair and accurate reporting.
This will be tempered by high thresholds for criminal incitement to hatred and it will not be necessary to show that anyone was actually influenced by the incitement or acted on it.
But will this kind of legislation take away the right to speak their minds out from the common man, the man on the street, the keyboard warriors, the angry and the dispossessed and hand it squarely back to those, like me, who have traditional and cyber platforms to make their points of view public?
I and so many others believe that everybody should have freedom of speech but, if you have that hard-won right, then you also have an implicit duty to behave responsibly and to respect other people’s rights too.
The rules surrounding freedom of speech exist to protect national security, territorial integrity, protect public safety, to prevent disorder or crime, to protect health and morals, protect the rights and reputations of people, prevent the disclosure of confidential information and allow authorities to restrict views that encourage race or religious hatred.
Freedom of speech has never been absolute, and never should it be. Libel, slander, obscenity, extreme pornography, sedition, incitement, copyright violation, trade secrets, non-disclosure agreements, perjury. All this things are damaging and offensive to society.
Jo Glanville, editor of the Index on Censorship, said that ‘the Internet has been a revolution for censorship as much as for free speech’.[
The Internet for so long has been unfiltered, vulgar and indecent. Why does the world have to face this every time it switches on its screens.
Surely this just gives us all disinformation, misinformation, insults and ultimately chaos?
Let’s repeat the tenets of the right to free speech …
1. don’t lie about people to do them harm
2. don’t say things which could damage people and countries
3. don’t defend evil
4. don’t incite violence and wars
5. don’t do what Assange did – a scatter-shot of state secrets
6. don’t incite racism
7. don’t publish damaging pornography
- don’t encourage hatred
It just seems right, doesn’t it?
