Thread: Freedom of Speech

Originally Posted by xman

Inciting hatred is universally off the menu. It's illegal.

Are you sure about that? I'm not
link?

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Are you sure about that? I'm not
link?

Inciting hatred is illegal in Europe AFAIAA. As is negationism, defamation, racism and xenophobia. In some countries, homophobia is illegal as well.

From wikipedia:

There are various domestic laws concerning negationism and/or hate speech (under which negationism is then included), such as the Belgian Holocaust denial law or the 1990 French Gayssot Act, which prohibits any "racist, anti-Semitic or xenophobic" speech. Other European countries which have outlawed Holocaust denial are Switzerland (article 261bis of the Penal Code), Germany (§ 130 (3) of the penal code), Austria (article 3h Verbotsgesetz 1947), Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Poland (article 55 of the law creating the Institute of National Remembrance 1998).

Also from WP, regarding the compatibility with the US consitution:

The Council of Europe Explanatory Report of the Protocol states "European Court of Human Rights has made it clear that the denial or revision of “clearly established historical facts – such as the Holocaust – [...] would be removed from the protection of Article 10 by Article 17” of the ECHR (see in this context the Lehideux and Isorni judgment of 23 September 1998)".^[13] However, the United States government does not believe that the final version of the Protocol is consistent with the United States' constitutional guarantees and has informed the Council of Europe that the United States will not become a Party to the protocol.^[14]