Ireland is set to become the latest country to pass "hate speech" legislation, making it a crime to "possess material that is likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or group" and a violation of the act can carry a prison sentence of up to five years.
The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 passed the Dail Eireann stage of the Irish legislature on Wednesday and has begun the process in the Seanad Eireann. The bill makes it an offense to "incite violence or hatred against a person, condonation, denial or gross trivialisation of genocide, and preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics."
Protected characteristics include race, colour, nationality, religion, national or ethnic origin, descent, gender, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, or disability.
One part that drew controversy about the bill is the notion that mere possession of material that is deemed hateful is enough for up to two years in prison, and the burden of proof is on the accused to prove their intent was not to spread "hate."
In section 10(3) it states that "reasonably assumed that the material was not intended for personal use of the person, the person shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to have been in the possession of the material."
The bill clarifies that comunicating these materials to the public in any way constitutes a violation of the law. It states if a person "displays, publishes, distributes, disseminates, shows or plays the material," or "makes the material available in any other way including the use of an information system" such as social media, it is against the law.
According to a tweet from Free Speech Ireland, the house voted against adding the UN Convention on Human Rights protections on Free Speech to the bill. They also voted against removing the offense for possession.
In a Tweet, Elon Musk responded to this news with "This is a massive attack against freedom of speech."
Countries around the world have been enacting so-called hate speech laws. On Friday, the Australian government threatened Reduxx mag for publishing an article about a male playing female soccer. In Canada, Amy Hamm has been in a legal battle for her involvement for putting up a billboard with the words "I (heart) J.K. Rowling" on it. Women’s Rights Campaigner Kelly-Jay Keen has been threatened for arrest in Sussex for using "words or behaviors to stir up hatred."
Bill 2022 is currently in stage 7 out of 11 in the Irish legislature.
