Elon Musk vows to fund legal challenge against Irish hate speech law: 'A massive attack on freedom of expression!'

Elon Musk has promised to fund legal challenges against a proposed hate speech legislation in Ireland.

The billionare CEO of X, formerly Twitter, and Tesla said the controversial bill is “a massive attack on freedom of expression”.

The legislation, the Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences bill, aims to tackle both incitement to hatred and hate speech.

The Irish government said the bill was a way to update existing laws in the age of the internet. However, critics of the bill say the law would stifle free speech.

Elon Musk vows to fund legal challenge against Irish hate speech law: ‘A massive attack on freedom of expression!’

Musk told Irish media outlet Gript: “You have to be able to speak your mind within the context of the law: without that you don’t have a real democracy.

“We will also fund the legal fees of Irish citizens who want to challenge the bill, so we’ll make sure that if there is an attempt to suppress the voice of the Irish people that we do our absolute best to defend the people of Ireland and their ability to speak their mind.”

The bill has already passed through the Dáil, Ireland’s lower chamber, but it has stalled in the Senate, the upper chamber.

Irish minister for justice Helen McEntee has insisted it would be progressed this year.

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Helen McEntee

The bill intends to criminalize communication or behaviour that “incites violence or hatred against a group or individual because they are associated with a protected characteristic.”

Protected characteristics listed in the bill include national or ethnic origin, as well as “transgender and a gender other than those of male and female.”

There has been criticism that the legislation was kept intentionally vague and suggests people could be jailed for being found in possession of books, memes or videos deemed politically offensive.

Musk, who bought Twitter for $44billion (£34.5billion) in 2022 and took the company private, has its European headquarters in Dublin.

GB News has approached the Irish Ministry for Justice for a comment in response to Musk’s claims.

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Musk said: “This thing we should be concerned about is if the Irish Parliament passes a bill that defines hate speech as whatever they think hate speech is, people should be extremely concerned about that,” Musk said.

“You’re just at the mercy of the ruling party and whatever bureaucrats they put in place and they can just define something that really is not hate speech as hate speech just because they don’t like it.”

The claims were supported by MMA fighter Conor McGregor who said: “Elon your consistent support on this matter has been truly appreciated and respected!

“We, the people of Ireland, will never tolerate any draconian/corruptible bills being passed into law here. We will not tolerate the attempted removal of our freedom to speak our minds and engage in fair, honest debate.”