{"id":284603,"date":"2024-03-31T07:35:59","date_gmt":"2024-03-31T07:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=284603"},"modified":"2024-04-01T07:18:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T07:18:08","slug":"radical-new-hate-crime-law-in-scotland-means-people-could-go-to-jail-if-their-words-offend-someone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=284603","title":{"rendered":"Radical new hate crime law in Scotland means people could go to jail if their words offend someone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cassie B. \u2013 Natural News March 29, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

In Scotland, a new hate crime law means that people will have to be a lot more careful about artistic expression and the things they say moving forward as police target podcasts, blog posts, social media posts and other expressions of opinion.<\/p>\n

In a scary new development that sounds more like communist China than anything we would expect in a free country, police in Scotland have said that they will investigate every report they receive of content that can be considered hateful<\/a> toward \u201cprotected characteristics.\u201d This includes religion or perceived religious affiliation, disability, age, nationality, transgenderism, variations in sex characteristics and sexual orientation. After going through the complaint, they will carry out a \u201cproportionate response.\u201d<\/p>\n

The law, which has been the subject of great controversy since its passage three years ago, will go into effect on April 1. Many are concerned about its lack of protection for freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

A former fraud prosecutor has warned that Harry Potter<\/em> author J.K. Rowling, who lives in Edinburgh, could find herself in hot water as previous posts she has made about gender<\/a> will \u201cmost likely contravene the new law.\u201d After he advised her to start deleting her posts, she replied: \u201cIf you genuinely imagine I\u2019d delete posts calling a man a man, so as not to be prosecuted under this ludicrous law, stand by for the mother of all April Fools\u2019 jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police in Scotland have said that they will only be investigating new incidents that take place after the law goes into effect, which means retrospective action would not be taken against her or anyone else for previous posts. However, concerns that these types of comments will spur an investigation moving forward are well-founded. Rowling has said that she is not transphobic and believes people should live however they please, but she has been vocal about the dangers posed by allowing biological males into female-only spaces.<\/p>\n

Scottish Nationalist MP Joanna Cherry KC has said she is certain the law \u201cwill be weaponised by trans rights activists to try to silence, and worse still, criminalise women who do not share their beliefs.\u201d Cherry, who has been critical of the Scottish government\u2019s gender policies, has suggested she believes that trans campaigners will use the new law to target Rowling.<\/p>\n

Comedians, actors and people who share memes could face investigation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Even comedians and actors will be subject to scrutiny under the new law. In short, if somebody feels offended by what someone else says and reports them, they could face legal action. Critics of the law contend that it essentially equates harmless jokes and memes with more serious acts like revenge porn. One of the law\u2019s provisions explicitly states that people can be prosecuted for \u201cdisplaying, publishing or distributing the material\u201d on social platforms, blogs, podcasts, sites and signs. This applies whether it is done directly or indirectly. It means that \u201cforwarding or repeating\u201d content that originates from a third party, such as reposting content on social media, also falls under the purview of the law.<\/p>\n

As if this weren’t bad enough, the law doesn’t apply only to newspaper articles and blog posts; it actually extends to cover the things that people say everywhere<\/a>, including in their own homes. This means that, at least theoretically, children will be able to report their parents for making comments that offend them. In addition, people will be able to inform on one another anonymously using third-party reporting centers.<\/p>\n

People who are accused of hate speech<\/a> will be investigated by Scottish police, who are expecting this to create a significant amount of additional work at a time when they are already overwhelmed dealing with more pressing issues. For those whose comments are ultimately judged not to be criminal in nature, they will still have a non-crime hate incident on their record.<\/p>\n

Sources for this article include:<\/strong><\/p>\n

ReclaimTheNet.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Telegraph.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Spectator.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new \u2018hate crime\u2019 legislation means that even by saying: \u201cmen can\u2019t be women\u201d in your own living room could result in the police logging a \u201chate incident\u201d against your name… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":284607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=284603"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284608,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284603\/revisions\/284608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/284607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=284603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=284603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=284603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}