We like to think we have freedom of speech. Doesn’t the First Amendment guarantee this to us? But some states have “hate speech” laws on the books. New York is considering a law, already passed in California that requires social media companies to report “hate speech.” This is the “Stop Hiding Hate Act” and has been passed by the State’s Assembly. Here is an account of the measure from Vince Chang, who favors it:
“Under pressure from the ADL [Ant-Defamation League] and other groups, internet platforms have voluntarily adopted measures to regulate hate speech. The ADL described some of the measures that have been taken:
Facebook prohibited Holocaust denial content, hired a vice president of civil rights, changed parts of its advertising platform to prohibit various forms of discrimination; expanded policies against content that undermined the legitimacy of the election; and built a team to study and eliminate bias in artificial intelligence. Due to pressure from ADL and other civil rights organizations, Twitter banned linked content, URL links to content outside the platform that promotes violence and hateful conduct. Reddit added its first global hate policy, providing for the removal of subreddits and users that “promote hate based on identity or vulnerability.”[12]
Despite these efforts, one analysis showed that major social media platforms fail to take down more than 80% of antisemitic posts on their platforms. The Center for Countering Digital Hatred reported that 80% of 700 posts containing “anti-Jewish hatred,” which had collectively been viewed 7.3 million times, were not removed. The research covered Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. Facebook was said to have failed to act on 89% of posts.
In an attempt to respond to internet hate speech, New York legislators have introduced the Stop Hiding Hate Act, legislation that has passed the New York Senate and is pending in the Assembly. This bill would require large social media companies to disclose their policies and moderation practices for online hate speech. The legislation is modeled after a similar law in effect in California.
The Stop Hiding Hate Act presents difficult issues relating to the First Amendment. For reasons set out below, we believe that the act does not violate First Amendment principles as set out in the preponderance of case law. Legislation that establishes disclosure standards rather than content-based regulation generally survives First Amendment standards.” See this.
In addition to this law, the Hate Crimes Modernization Bill, also in New York, adds writing graffiti and “false reporting” to the list of hate crimes.
If these laws were enforced, then if you “stir up hatred” against “protected” groups, the law would come after you. And any form of criticism could count as “hatred”. For example, if you read the Bible at a “Gay Pride” parade or at an abortion mill, this is hatred. This isn’t a hypothetical in a number of other countries, and I want to focus especially on the Scottish Hate Speech Act.
We have been discussing the continuing erosion of free speech protections in the United Kingdom (here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Once you start as a government to criminalize speech, you end up on a slippery slope of censorship. What constitutes hate speech remains a highly subjective matter and we have seen a steady expansion of prohibited terms and words and gestures. As noted in a prior column, free speech appears to be dying in the West with the increasing criminalization of speech under discrimination, hate, and blasphemy laws.
Scotland has adopted particularly chilling limitations on free speech. These controversies often involve thecriminalization of political or ideological viewpoints.
J.K. Rowling is one of the most famous writers in the world, and everybody knows her Harry Potter stories. But she has some Twitter posts that do not take the “trannies” with the seriousness they think is due to them, and they want her prosecuted under the Scottish Bill. She has dared them to prosecute her, and so far they haven’t. But ordinary citizens won’t be so lucky. Jonathan Turley explains the story:
“We have previously discussed the growing anti-free speech movement in Scotland with the expanding criminalization of political and religious speech. The new Scottish law is a perfect nightmare for free speech, expanding the potential of a jail sentence for merely insulting language. In response, author JK Rowling has taken a stand and dared the Scottish police to come and arrest her for criticizing transgender status.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 illustrates how these laws create a slippery slope of speech criminalization as more and more speech is banned. We previously discussed the law when it was first introduced.
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