The UK values freedom of speech but it is on a horizontal plane along with
other rights and freedoms, NOT a vertical one with freedom of speech at the
top. Hate speech not only gets you blocked in the UK, it gets you jailed, and
quite rightly in my opinion.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/twitter-trolls-isabella-sorley-and-john-nimmo-jailed-for-abusing-feminist-campaigner-caroline-criadoperez-9083829.html
And this is how this works in practice, with relevance to Wikipedia and the
issues under discussion here obvious:
US: Tape of sports team owner in major market talking with his mistress is
released in which he makes racist statements, where said owner has some history
of making similar statements in the context of his other business interests,
and the group against which the racist statements are made constitutes a
disproportionately large share of the league’s players and fan base. League
commissioner bans him for life from league events, including his own team’s
games; he is later forced to sell team (albeit at market rate).
UK: Chief executive of major sports league whose games and teams are followed
by a worldwide audience as it is widely considered to have some of the world’s
best teams in that sport has emails disclosed in which he talks about women,
including some identifiable ones in the office, in a sexist, crude and juvenile
way. He is not punished in any way as the emails were supposed to have been
private and the woman he talked about (whose continued employment,
coincidentally, depends on his goodwill) said she didn’t mind.
Daniel Case___
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