Want to make a meme in Ireland? How about this one?
Welp, unfortunately that meme is offensive to the black community because they're incarcerated at a higher rate than the rest of us. Sorry, you're going to jail.
Seriously, that's all it might take to find your way to the slammer with this new law which really just punishes thoughtcrime in Ireland. And yes, that means memes are criminal.
Offence of preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics
10. (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3) and section 11, a person shall be guilty of an offence under this section if the person-
(a) prepares or possesses material that is likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of their protected characteristics or any of those characteristics with a view to the material being communicated to the public or a section of the public, whether by himself or herself or another person, and
(b) prepares or possesses such material with intent to incite violence or hatred against such a person or group of persons on account of those characteristics or any of those characteristics or being reckless as to whether such violence or hatred is thereby incited.
Yes, this is real:
The new Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill, which is currently passing through the Irish parliament, contains some shockingly authoritarian provisions. The bill will outlaw the ‘communication' of material or speech that might ‘incite hatred' against people with certain protected characteristics (such as race, religion and gender). In practice, if other European hate-speech laws are any guide, ‘inciting hatred' tends to mean little more than causing offence. This can be punishable by up to five years in prison.
As if all that weren't draconian enough, it even makes it a crime, punishable by two years' jail time, to simply ‘prepare or possess' material likely to ‘incite hatred'. ‘Possession' could mean nothing more than having an offensive video stored on your computer, or a dodgy meme saved on your phone.
A hatespeech law that punishes you for even possessing hateful content.
CRAZY!!!
So if you've got a dank meme on deck you might just receive a visit from the authorities. Dare you post the thing, then you'll definitely be in for some trouble.
Here are some memes that could get you in deep doodoo if you happen to live in Ireland:
All of these are offensive to someone, though I can post these because I live in America where we still have some freedom left.
Oh wait, I totally forgot about this:
A little north of "meme" with the election interference bit, but it won't be long before here in the states we have similar "hate speech" laws regarding these things.
We must meme all we can in the memetime.
Alright, so we'll keep an eye on Ireland, and why don't you keep an eye on those dank memes before they become illegal.
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