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  6.  » Creepy: Finland Police Urge Kids to Report Parents Who Say Mean Things About Politicians on Facebook

Ian Miles Cheong — HeatStreet Jan 18, 2017

The police in Finland are urging children to snitch on their parents for criticizing politicians on Facebook. The call to action is a part of the police’s newest campaign to engage citizens through social media with the launch of a new YouTube channel dedicated to providing information and advice.

Over the past few years, the Finnish authorities made it a mandate to monitor social media in an effort to tackle “hate speech.” While most “hate speech” offenses consist of verbal insults towards immigrants and religious minorities, the term has also come to encompass disparaging messages towards politicians.

As part of its effort to engage younger citizens through social media, the police have set up a YouTube channel, and its latest video advises children to report their parents for that crime. The video was translated by a YouTuber and confirmed by multiple Finnish speakers to me. It features a little girl named Alma whose mom  informs her that she’s posting a message on a politician’s Facebook wall.

“I’m really going to let him have it,” says the woman, prompting the child to ask her why she doesn’t simply address him in person. “Well, these are the kind of things I wouldn’t dare say to him directly to his face,” she responds.

The child proceeds to summon the Finnish police mascot, and admonishes her mother for doing a “naughty thing.”

The police voiceover states that berating someone on Facebook with images and “nasty messages” may constitute a criminal offense in Finland, and adds that it is illegal to dox someone—before breaking into a song about Internet harassment.

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It looks like a parody, but it isn’t. The song suggests that posting an insulting message on the Internet is like getting a tattoo—it lasts forever.

Finland currently ranks at the #1 on the World Press Freedom Index, and citizens are generally free to express themselves. But new laws threaten that freedom.

In Finland, as in many places, it is against the law to threaten or insult any group because of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability or any comparable trait.  “Ethnic agitation,” or calling for the genocide of any race, is the only crime punishable with a prison sentence. The police seek to broaden the scope of the existing law and criminalize all manner of “hate speech.”

In their effort to prevent the rise of fascism and maintain stability and freedom, the Finnish authorities are slowly turning themselves into Big Brother in 1984.

 

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