Comment by VickiActually on 31/01/2025 at 01:56 UTC

15 upvotes, 0 direct replies (showing 0)

View submission: Should we have freedom of hate speech?

I actually think it's the other way around.

If what she said was egregious, then the radio station isn't going to repeat it by publishing the quotes.
If what she said was completely reasonable, then surely she would provide that evidence. Surely she'd show us "this is what I said - it's not even bad".

There's also an issue here about platforming, which you brought up. To me, the freedom to speak doesn't mean you have the right to hold the megaphone. There's no "right to be listened to".

I get what you mean about messiness. From my view though, I think some of this mess comes from the "other" side. There was a story a while ago that blew up, about someone who was done for hate speech against a trans woman. The story went viral, "she's been arrested for social media posts!!" What she actually did was encourage her followers to attack this person online, and she made multiple accounts to avoid being blocked so she could repeatedly target this same transgender woman. She was arrested for *harassment*, with hate speech being part of that. But the viral story was "you can't criticise trans people anymore!"

I bring this up because I think it's the same issue. This woman had the right to share her views with anyone who wanted to listen. She had been doing that for ages. What she *didn't* have the right to do was force this one trans woman to listen. I think this is where we need to be clear on what precisely our freedoms are. We have a right to speak, not a right to force other people's ears.

Heck, I mean how often do we see actual transgender people on the news? Rarely if ever. If their free speech meant they have a right to be platformed, we'd see them all the time!

What do you reckon? I'd be interested in your take on that

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