The Scottish Government’s Hate Crime Bill flouts international human rights law and poses a “dire risk” to freedom of expression”, according to Danish legal experts. Justitia, an international judicial think tank based in Copenhagen, warns that draft ‘stirring up hatred’ offences in Part 2 of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill breach the […]
Inspired by Germany’s notorious hate-speech law, more countries seek to impose steep penalties on platforms that don’t comply with their censorship whims. “”This raises the question of whether Europe’s most influential democracy has contributed to the further erosion of global Internet freedom by developing and legitimizing a prototype of online censorship by proxy that can […]
On October 1, a new law to regulate content posted on social media platforms took effect in Turkey, The Guardian reported. Turkish journalists already face censorship and arrest because of social media posts, CPJ has found, and the law offers just one more tool to censor news. Yet the legislation was not solely conceived in Ankara; it follows the example of one of […]
Late in the evening on June 1, 2019, Walter Lübcke, a local German politician, sat on the terrace outside his house on the outskirts of Kassel when a man crept up on him, aimed a gun at his head and shot him just above his ear. The man, a neo-Nazi, had crossed paths with the […]
The German NetzDG law to counter illegal online speech has become a prototype for internet censorship in authoritarian states. The Commission’s proposal for the new Digital Services Act must avoid this template, write Jacob Mchangama and Natalie Alkiviadou. Jacob Mchangama is Director at the think-tank Justitia. Natalie Alkiviadou is Senior Research Fellow at The Future […]
Our written submission to the Scottish Parliament on the Hate Crime and Public Order Bill. See our contribution see here. See a list of contributions. Brief summary of our views: Whilst welcoming the abolishment of blasphemy, we are concerned about (i) the freedom of expression implications of the Bill (ii) the integration of speech and […]
Despite their opposing views, both US presidential candidates want to change how social media platforms operate. One system adopted by Germany is increasingly being discussed around the world as an option. The so-called NetzDG law has been emulated in countries including Turkey, Russia and Brazil with more than 20 other governments, including the UK, citing […]
The Digital Berlin Wall – How Germany (Accidentally) Created a Prototype for Global Online Censorship – Act two The German Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) continues to inspire authoritarian and illiberal internet censorship around the world. In under a year, the number of countries copy-pasting the NetzDG matrix to provide cover and legitimacy for digital […]