Europeans Outlaw Net Hate Speech

Wired News ^ | November 9, 2002 | Julia Scheeres

[The FRugitive]

The Council of Europe has adopted a measure that would criminalize Internet hate speech, including hyperlinks to pages that contain offensive content.

The provision, which was passed by the council's decision-making body (the Committee of Ministers), updates the European Convention on Cybercrime.

[The FRugitive]

Who gets to decide what is "hate"? Free Republic has been called a "hate site".

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #1

I see liberruls drooling upon hearing this. Those who have griped that the American tax rate is too low (compare with Europe's) now have another Europe-envy.

[Krafty123]

I HATE the EU.

[Drango]

Bite me you Euro Trash...BAN this *&%^!%(*&&^$^#&-*^%$^&%$!

[Maedhros]

[evolved_rage]

When will the homo-sapien Europeans throw off their shackles from their racially inferior EU bureaucrats?

Is that hateful enough??? The socialist leaders of Europe are half a step below a troop of baboons, intellectually, physically, and genetically. Neener, neener, neener.

[ConservativeMan55]

Liberals would love to silence their critics and control everything.
It ain't happening!

[jveritas]

I guarantee for you that if there is a hate site against Christianity and Conservatives it will not be banned by this stupid liberal European law.

[MedicalMess]

"What will happen if the French police start asking local U.S. police to give them information about the people running a site?"

They will get the standard answer...

"We don't know anything about Internet crime. We have no people to handle that stuff. You need to talk to the State Department because you are from France."

And when they call the State Department the answer will be...

"We have more important priorities than your petty whinning. Don't you know there's a war going on? Oh we forgot, you're from France. You already surrendered."

[Cicero]

So you're thrown in the Euroclink if you are LINKED to a hate site?

FreeRepublic is linked to just about every news and information site in the world, from the Islamofacists to the Straits Times to The New York Times. Even Salon.

No linking? What a beautiful, socialist way to suppress the free exchange of ideas.

[xm177e2]

I can't say that I'm surprised. They finally went and did it.

[potlatch]

This is a bad thing. Book burning=computer burning!! I could imagine our left wing liberals going for it eventually!?

[jveritas]

I assume this is the French revolution emblem. The French revolution was dead from the beginning. In fact it ate its own children through the rule of terror, and after that Napoleon Bonaparte totally destroyed it by claiming himself absolute tyrant and emperor. The real democratic revolution that changed the world is our American Revolution and the great men who fought it.

[knuthom]

Who gets to decide what is "hate"?

Remember those bumper stickers that said "Hate is not a family value"? We need some that say "Disagreement and disapproval are not hate".

[weikel]

The EU is communist.

[virgil]

Everytime these Euro-ninnies pass a law their paralysis gets deeper and deeper. Somebody will eventually cry "enough"! Then the whole bloody war thing will start up again.

[usadave]

Specifically, the amendment bans "any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as pretext for any of these factors."

I categorize the above as hate speech.

[Steve Eisenberg]

The council cited a report finding that 2,500 out of 4,000 racist sites were created in the United States.

Can anyone find this report and the list of the 2,500 U.S. hate sites? It would be very interesting to see what they consider a hate site.

[NeoCaveman]

Europeans Outlaw Net Hate Speech

I hate the Euro-crats.

[TheDon]

Looks like the Europeans didn't learn the right lessons from WWII. They are headed down the Road to Serfdom. They destroyed the National Socialist Party of Germany, the Nazis, and now they have become Nazis themselves. So much for free speech in Europe. They aren't so great on freedom of religion either.