This is a guest blog post by Free Speech Ireland’s Sarah Hardiman.
Two-months shy from a likely general election Ireland’s Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has announced plans to stop the introduction of hate speech laws into the Republic following a sustained public backlash led by Free Speech Ireland (FSI), among others.
The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 includes clauses that would mean a risk of a five-year jail sentence for those accused of “perceived” hate speech, but a more moderate version of the Bill will now be presented to the Irish Parliament (Oireachtas).
The government has not yet released its amendments to the Bill. Those opposing the legislation in the Oireachtas have over 50 amendments to hand if hers don’t go far enough. Nevertheless, I am optimistic. Free Speech Ireland, and many allies and stakeholders have spent years campaigning against this threat to free speech and, judging from the noises McEntee is making, it feels like we’ve been heard.
FSI: GRASSROOTS TO GLOBAL ATTENTION
Free Speech Ireland started as a student group at University College Cork. We initially engaged in direct activism against the bill by hosting politicians, journalists and academics in a rented Dublin hotel room, followed by a town-hall meeting of 250 members of the public. This was in the winter of 2022 as the Bill was in its first stages in Ireland’s lower house. Our group was a combination of students and young adults, pitching in our various skills such as filming, video-editing, web-design, social media management, and graphic design, all on a voluntary basis. We achieved moderate attention online and produced relatively high quality online content. At least, high quality for a bunch of amateurs.
Our first town hall meeting in winter 2022, including journalist Ian O’Doherty (pictured).
Our social media campaign against the Bill gained significant traction, especially when our tweets and videos were circulated by Irish commentators with large followings and retweeted by figures like Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr., and Jordan Peterson. This led to multiple media requests for interviews on television, radio and podcasts, with those of us with a legal and policy background taking to the airwaves.
PUBLIC EVENTS AND ONLINE AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS
After the Bill passed through the lower house, we started to ramp-up the campaign ahead of the arrival of the Bill in the Senate which was due just before the summer recess.
FSI, along with Gript Media, hosted nearly 1,000 people at a public event in September 2023 called “Ireland Uncensored”. The event was a huge success, judging from the coverage it got. It was attended by Irish politicians, journalists, authors and activists of all kinds. It was also timely due to the return of parliament after the summer recess. This helped us to hit certain news cycles and keep the issue fresh in the minds of the media and politicians.
Ireland Uncensored, which we hosted in September of 2023, was our first large scale and internationally attended event
Our next big campaign tool was the production of a simple, scripted one-minute video (which we planned and shot within two weeks) and launched just before the return of parliament after the Christmas recess in 2023. It received over 20 million views after it was shared by many international figures, including Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson. This prompted more media invites which kept the topic front and centre in the Irish media almost two years on from when we initially started.
This timing was crucial, as it coincided with key political events, including a referendum in March as to whether or not the word “woman” should be removed from the Irish Constitution, as well as local elections in June, exploiting the government’s need to avoid bad publicity because it wanted to win the referendum (which it didn’t).
We continued through the Spring with small public protests at various politicians’ clinics in Cork, Galway and Meath, led by our student wing.
Our protests on the ground in Cork, Galway and Meath
The Bill has still not yet returned to the Senate, but we were keen to not lose momentum and hosted an event with Alliance Defending Freedom in June called the “Free Speech Summit 2024”. Guests included Graham Linehan, Andy Ngo, Michael Shellenberger and Andrew Doyle, to name a few. It was attended by over 300 people and again produced viral online content.
ADF’s Lorcan Price and Senators Sharon Keogan and Ronan Mullen spoke at the 2024 Free Speech Summit
LEGISLATIVE IMPACT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES
The sustained public backlash led to the Minister for Justice announcing plans last weekend to water down the hate speech elements of the Bill. After two years of consistent online and in-person meetings we are delighted with this result. We expect there will be future attempts to bring back the hate speech laws to ensure Ireland is compliant with EU law. Polling suggests the current coalition in the Irish parliament will maintain its position as the next government after the election. Both the government and opposition parties called for hate speech legislation (until late last year when Sinn Féin, who led the opposition, suddenly switched their position and called for the Bill to be scrapped), so we’re not out of the woods.
We owe a huge thanks to our many allies, partners and friends for their advice and support. The Free Speech Union was among the first to reach out to us and we cannot thank Toby and his team for their continued support.
Despite this victory, FSI remains vigilant. The EU Digital Services Act and its enforcement through Ireland’s media commission makes Ireland the key battleground when it comes to EU-wide online censorship. We expect more fights in the near future.
