The government want you to vote Yes today in the blasphemy referendum and free speech activists are very concerned at the possibility of a new “hate crime” being introduced in place of the current blasphemy legislation.
Certain social media users claim the government want to enforce a hate crime that would see free speech being a thing of the past and possibly custodial sentences to those who don’t think politically correct.
Free speech activists are advocating a No vote today and for the blasphemy legislation to remain as it is.
There are rumours circulating on various Facebook groups that the government want people to vote yes tomorrow in the blasphemy referendum in order to replace it with a much more strict “hate crime”.
A Facebook user, who does not want to be named, contacted The Liberal to say that the government are trying to blackmail the public into voting yes in an effort to try and stamp out free speech and invoke hate crime legislation in its place.
The social media user told us that they’re part of a private Facebook group where insiders close to Fine Gael say that they intend to implement “hate crime” legislation which could see people questioned, charged and potentially even jailed for conceivable hate crime speech on social media or in reality.
It must be stressed that this has not been made public or confirmed by a government body, however various TDs have said that they would like a replacement to the current blasphemy legislation.
They told us:
“Charlie Flanagan has been using Ireland as an example for Middle Eastern countries to justify their regime because we have this law. It’s a nonsensical analogy”.
“The only way to stop such hate crime from being brought into law is to vote no in the blasphemy referendum tomorrow and to tell your friends to do the same. Also noted is that there hasn’t been much debate for the referendum in the lead up to tomorrow.”