Evidence says that posting hateful speech doesn't cause real violence

3 months ago
48

Andrew Doyle: "You could say that someone posting online saying: "Go and smash up a hotel" is incitement to violence, but there is no evidence whatsoever that anyone who then goes and smashes up the hotel did so, were acing on cue from that statement. In fact all the evidence says that's not the case. And actually the responsibility for criminal activity should be with those who perform the criminal activity not those who merely talk about it.
So I would say we need complete freedom of speech, even for ghastly people who say ghastly things, because that is preferable to the alternative. Because every tyrannical regime in history has said that they are implemented censorship for the safety of citizens. Everyone's done it and now we have the government that's talking about its Online Safety Bill, because it doesn't just stop with incitement to violence or horrible things said online. It soon expands into opinions that the government doesn't like. If you have something on the statute books saying that hatred as a legal hate speech is illegal, what is to stop a future government deciding that criticism of their policies is hate and therefore using that legislation to oppress its citizens."

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