Irish people could be jailed for ‘hate speech’, critics of proposed law warn

Irish citizens who campaign against transgender women being able to use female changing rooms or crisis centres risk jail under an “Orwellian” hate-speech law, critics have claimed.

The Irish senate last week debated the controversial Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022.

The bill seeks to expand the range of people protected from hate speech to include those with “gender identities”, including transgender or “gender other than those of male or female”.

Supporters of the bill argue that Ireland needs to update its hate-speech protections to match the evolution of society and social media.

The bill, introduced in 2022 by justice minister Helen McEntee, has drawn global interest, with Donald Trump Jr describing it as “insane” and Elon Musk as “very concerning”.

Expected to become law

It is expected to become law later this year, with the Senate unlikely to make any major amendments, given its recommendations can be rejected by Parliament.

Under the law, existing offences such as assault or criminal damage will receive higher sentences if they are aggravated by “hatred”.

The law will also criminalise possessing material intended to be shared that could incite hatred towards people with “protected characteristics”. The material does not actually have to be disseminated to the public in any way.

Reacting to fears that the bill could have a chilling effect on free speech, the government last year told the Irish Times that the bar for criminal prosecution will be “very high”.

“Criminal incitement to hatred will not be an area that anybody will stray into by accident,” the Department of Justice told the Irish Times.

Protecting ‘vulnerable people’

In order to be prosecuted, government ministers have argued, people will have to deliberately and recklessly stir up hatred against citizens with “protected characteristics”, which also include race, religion and disability.

Debating the law in the Senate last week, Irish Green Party senator Pauline O’Reilly said it was right to restrict people’s freedom of speech to protect vulnerable people from “discomfort”.

“If a person’s views on other people’s identities make their lives unsafe and insecure, and cause them such deep discomfort that they cannot live in peace, our job as legislators is to restrict those freedoms for the common good,” she said.

“One cannot do and say whatever one likes in our society.”

Earlier in the debate, independent senator Ronan Mullen queried the wisdom of potentially punishing people for debating gender identity.

”Will mocking memes be tolerated?” he asked.

“Will carrying a placard stating ‘Men cannot breastfeed’ warrant a hate-speech investigation or up to five years’ imprisonment, a lifelong label as a criminal hater and all of the stigma and life limitation that goes with that? Nobody actually knows.”

‘Misinformation and distortion’

Ms McEntee said that much of the debate around the legislation has “unfortunately also been subject to deliberate misinformation and distortion, including from fringe commentators and US-based social media personalities”.

She stressed that section 11 of the bill “explicitly” provides protection for freedom of expression, noting that “discussion or criticism of matters relating to a protected characteristic does not constitute incitement to hatred in and of itself”.

Ms McEntee said: “You have a right to express your convictions and your opinions, no matter how unpopular they might be.”

Helen Joyce, a former Economist journalist and director of advocacy at campaign group Sex Matters, disagreed in a series of posts on Twitter.

“It [the bill] is likely to criminalise voicing views that risk resulting in ‘hatred’ (remember, there’s no definition of this!) towards male people who want access to women’s changing rooms and sports because they feel female. Penalty: up to five years in jail.

“When a crime has no definition, anyone can be found guilty. And that’s what’s going to happen if this bill becomes law, because it criminalises ‘hate’ without defining it.”