Lately, I’ve been thinking about the next time I’ll go to visit family in Ireland. Should I leave my phone at home, where it and I are safely protected by the First and Fourth Amendments?
Ireland’s lower house, the Dáil, has passed a hate-speech bill that is almost comical when described. You don’t even have to offend anyone to be guilty of “hate.” A judge can simply determine that the speech at issue was “likely to incite hatred or violence” toward members of protected groups. Also, you can be convicted before uttering or publishing the speech. A judge only has to determine whether you “possessed” the speech, perhaps in a drafts folder on a phone, and had an intent to utter or publish it. Oh, and by the way, the bill allows the state to compel a person to hand over the passwords to his phone or face imprisonment, based simply on the allegation. And finally, the law would presume guilt once possession is established. “In any proceeding under this section . . . the person shall be presumed until the contrary is proved, to have been in possession of the material in contravention” of the law. You’d have to prove to the judge and the prosecutor that you did not intend to publish it.
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