Ireland Hate Speech Law Would Make It Illegal to Possess 'Reckless' Memes
themessenger.com
themessenger.com
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Section 10 title: "Offence of preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics"
(...)
"(4) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable— (a) on summary conviction, to a class C fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both, or (b) on conviction on indictment, to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or both."
The news company reporting the article is from Florida as far as I can see. There are pretty different laws between USA and Ireland. I'd sum the main differences up as you can't just go and say what you want if its not true, or discriminative in most countries in Europe.
The difference is that it is much harder to make a living out of it. It’s the industry of hate that’s being targeted here.
...and that is where the problem lies, in the definition of the concept 'harm'. Sticks and stones do physical harm and as such are easily covered by relevant laws. As to whether words do harm the opinions vary from '...but words can never harm me' to the proponents of a trigger-warning safe space culture where everybody has her own truth. Sometimes words can lead to physical harm - call someone a Jew in the midst of one of the raging pro-Hamas protests, say that someone did something to a koran in rural Pakistan - but other times they just make people feel bad/left out/misunderstood/etc.
It is quite common to call those who do not align to the doctrines of the 'progressive left' for 'nazi', 'extreme right', 'alt-right', 'fascist' and more such epitets. Does this count as 'harming' those people and if so should it be punishable? If not, why not?
Unless you also can’t tell the difference between “being not aligned” and actively inducing hatred against minorities, ie being a nazi. But that’s dementia, not ethics.
Though I suppose calling something an "industry" when it produces nothing of value and subsists entirely on hand-outs and subsidies is pushing it.
Like the subsidized state media that told everyone to hate the unvaccinated and exclude them from polite society, which still, somehow, thinks of itself as antifascist.