Legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has welcomed the decision of the European Commission to withdraw a plan to criminalise “hate speech”.
ADF said that the plan would have placed hate speech in the same category as human trafficking, terrorism, drug trafficking and organised crime.
The group added that the plan was effectively vetoed by a number of member states who were concerned that it could negatively impact freedom of speech.
While welcoming the decision, ADF noted that the European Commission is looking at other measures that could restrict freedom of speech.
Posting on X, ADF said, “This is a major victory for freedom of expression. But the battle is not over yet."
In a separate post the group said, “Having failed to make ‘hate speech’ an EU crime, the Commission is considering a ‘Directive on combating online incitement to violence and hatred’.
“Incitement to violence is already a crime. ‘Incitement to hatred’ has been used in several countries to prosecute and censor peaceful expression.
"The risk is clear: under the guise of ‘inclusion’ and ‘protection’, the directive would be yet another tool to silence disfavoured views and strengthen the DSA’s [Digital Services Act] online censorship regime.”
An example of where the Commission’s proposed plan could have gone is readily available in Finland.
The Finnish Supreme Court fined Christian politician Päivi Räsänen €1,800 in March after convicting her over passages in a 2004 booklet on marriage and sexuality that the court said insulted gay people as a group. Alongside the fine, the court ordered the offending passages to be removed from online versions.
Speaking about her conviction at a conference in Poland last week, she said that European hate speech laws are “very problematic and dangerous” because they are being used to shut down important debates.
