The Crime of Speech | Hacker News Reader

The Crime of Speech

eff.org

126 pointsDiabloD318 comments

> Studying the judicial history of these laws, you quickly realize that law enforcement only applies them after it’s identified the journalist or protestor that it wants to arrest. The pattern is that authorities will find the offending speech and then choose the law that can be interpreted to most closely address it. The system results in a rule by law rather than rule of law: the goal is to arrest, try, and punish the individual—the law is merely a tool used to reach an already predetermined conviction.

Thanks for the reminder about how laws against "offensive speech" will be used in practice.

Not just laws against "offensive speech". The report mentions how in Tunisia you've got fabrication of charges founded upon marijuana possession. In November 2015 there were 516 activists (out of over 2000) arrested for the alleged consumption of cannabis.

In South Africa free speech is also progressively being stifled through new laws, whos purpose is said to punish racism and hate speech, but is actually being used to support the governing party in silencing dissidents and critics.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35235102

"A spokesman for the ANC chief whip's office, Moloto Mothapo, told the BBC that current legislation was insufficient to tackle racism."

"We haven't had a single person imprisoned for racism despite many instances of racism. We don't believe it addresses the crime of racism," he said." (he means the current laws)

"Elsewhere glorification of Nazism and denial of Holocaust is a crime and perpetrators are tried and sentenced to a prison term," it added.

>In South Africa free speech is also progressively being stifled through new laws, whos purpose is said to punish racism and hate speech, but is actually being used to support the governing party in silencing dissidents and critics.

Stifling free speech, in any case, is always just like putting a band-aid on an infected boil which only serves to make the problem fester even more.

>Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

-Dr. King, Letter From a Birmingham Jail

Likely those laws were never intended to actually do anything about racism. Racism was used as the boogeyman to justify expanding government powers to allow arresting of the "other". It's a growing trend in many nations around the world, using an exaggerated social issue to expand power.

An artist was given 6 months prison sentence in Sweden: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/22/swedish-artist-...

Similar things happen in France, Germany, Austria etc. It's usually for challenging anti-racist dogmas. In Germany, it can be for making fun of a foreign leader.

This is exactly the same stuff going on in Thailand. Post something on Facebook the gov doesn't like and receive a 6 years[1] to 60 years[2] prison sentence. The new cybercrime billed was just announced with harsh penalties for posting anything that embarasses anybody or damages the image of the country. The junta doesn't give any cares at all anymore and just abducts people who say anything they don't like[3]. You would think that western governments would at least pretend to be strong against this kind of thing.

[1] http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/thai-man-jailed-years-...

[2] https://advox.globalvoices.org/2016/01/25/meet-the-thai-face...

[3] http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/950073/regime-wield...

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