A Wallaby Ate Their Brains? Free Speech Goes Down Under In New Zealand
New Zealand passed an idiotic and dangerous law against online meanness, opening up the floodgates for the opportunistic to shut down speech on the Internet and beyond (since speech that starts elsewhere is often reported in Internet posts.
How long before the mere reporting of discomforting speech is also a criminal offense in NZ?
Richard Chirgwin writes at The Register:
The country last night passed a controversial bill, the Harmful Digital Communications Bill, in the hope of stemming "cyber-bullying".The bill creates a regime under which digital communications causing "serious emotional distress" are subject to an escalating regime that starts as "negotiation, mediation or persuasion" but reaches up to creating the offences of not complying with an order, and "causing harm by posting digital communication."
The most serious offenders would face two years in jail or a maximum fine of NZ$50,000 (US$33,900).
...The bill covers posts that are racist, sexist, or show religious intolerance, along with hassling people over disability or sexual orientation.
...The regime will be enforced by a yet-to-be-established agency that will make contact with publishers and social media platforms, and if it can't resolve a complaint, the agency will be able to escalate it to the district court.
There's a safe harbour provision for Web sites, and here's where the free speech arises. A platform like Facebook or Twitter (if they bothered) can opt into the safe harbour - but only if they agree to remove allegedly offending material either on-demand or within the bill's 48-hour grace period.
...InternetNZ told the outlet that the bill should be kept under review: "the risk is of unintended consequences, or chosen balances of rights not working out in practice."
Duh.
My other post from today -- on Michael Eisner contending that funny and beautiful don't usually come in the same woman -- could be construed as "sexist."
And I'm sure I've shown "religious intolerance" when I've blogged about the nature of Islam -- how it, for example, commands the slaughter of gays and apostates, and has adherents obediently following through on those directives. (Somehow, I find, oh, hanging gay teens -- as Iran did -- and Muslims pushing gay men off buildings for Allah hard to "tolerate," imagine that.)
via @overlawyered
Another demonstration of why law is not, and cannot be, an enforcer of or substitute for morality. Although from the description, it sounds like they aren't going to go after individual authors, but after ISPs and hosting sites. Which means it's really just a scheme to extort money.
Cousin Dave at July 6, 2015 7:20 AM
This is already happening in Europe, too. Soon criticizing feminism will be banned and criminalized as "hate speech."
Jay R at July 6, 2015 3:13 PM
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