The government, teaming up with authoritarian companies, is blatantly disregarding the First Amendment and censoring many individuals’ freedom of speech. It’s not just about revealing their CONvid-1984. The actions they are taking are unlawful, according to the law, but they don’t care, and the People just won’t seek justice against them. Additionally, this extends beyond just the US.
Marie Hawthorne shares details on the strict measures implemented to suppress free speech.
For centuries, Western culture has valued free speech as a vital check on excessive centralized power. However, we’re witnessing the disappearance of the ability to speak freely.
Picture ending up in federal prison due to a meme.
Douglass Mackey, also known as Ricky Vaughn on Twitter, is facing jail time for creating memes mocking Hillary Clinton back in 2016. He created fake memes encouraging people to vote from home via text messages. Mackey argued in court that he was just sh*tposting. He didn’t believe anyone would be gullible enough to fall for it.
But never underestimate the influence of foolhardiness! At least 4900 people did call the prank number to vote for Hillary. The federal government did not find it amusing and sentenced Mackey to seven months in prison.
The situation in Ireland is even more severe.
This is troubling, but it pales in comparison to what Ireland has in store. In November 2022, Ireland’s legislature introduced the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence and Hatred or Hate Offences) Bill 2022.
Section 10 (1) (a) specifies that a person will be found guilty of an offense if they “prepares or possesses material that is likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of their protected characteristics or any of those characteristics with a view to the material being communicated to the public or a section of the public, whether by themselves or another person.”
These extremely vague and potentially broad offenses can lead to individuals facing jail time and hefty fines. Under the new law, the police will have the power to search homes and seize devices. They could search citizens’ devices for offensive memes. Possessing movies with offensive jokes will be punishable. Will everyone in Ireland have to get rid of their copies of Hot Shots Part Deux and Tropic Thunder?
As ludicrous as it sounds, this law is close to being passed in the Irish legislature. It had encountered opposition from the public. Irish senators had been receiving significant feedback from their constituents. There had been hope that the law would be heavily amended or withdrawn, but that was before the Dublin riots.
On November 23, a man in his 50s stabbed five people, including three schoolchildren, seriously injuring one of the children. He was an Algerian who had been in Ireland for over 20 years and had previous run-ins with the law. He only stopped when a Brazilian Deliveroo driver jumped off his moped and struck the assailant over the head with his bike helmet, enabling nearby citizens to help restrain the assailant until the police arrived.
Public outrage over this incident led to an eruption of violence in Dublin. Approximately 500 people were involved in riots that included looting, vandalism, and setting police vehicles on fire. Thirty-four people have been arrested.
Instead of expressing concern over the brutal stabbing, within a day of the riots, Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar stated that the riots were evidence that Ireland’s hate speech laws needed updating. He asserted that Ireland is just weeks away from passing the proposed hate speech legislation.
Varadkar isn’t letting this crisis go to waste!
To prove his point, after Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor criticized the Prime Minister’s response, the Garda launched an investigation into him for online hate speech.
And Conor McGregor is not the only patriot facing trouble.