Donald Trump Jr has targeted Ireland’s proposed new hate speech legislation, calling it “insane”.
The eldest child of the former President of the United States responded to a tweet highlighting aspects of the legislation known as the Criminal Justice (incitement to violence or hatred and hate crime) Bill 2022, reports Independent.
The updated legislation will add a “demonstration test” where prosecutors can rely on the use of insults, gestures or hostile or biased symbols at the time of the offense to facilitate prosecution.
The legislation is long overdue as Ireland currently has no specific hate crime legislation.
The law will regulate hate crimes by creating new aggravated forms of certain existing crimes where those crimes are motivated by prejudice against a protected characteristic such as race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, gender, etc, reports Independent.
Serious crimes generally carry higher penalties than ordinary crimes.
In response to a tweet about the upcoming legislation, Mr Trump Jr., whose father is visiting Ireland for two days this week, wrote: “It’s insane what’s happening in the ‘free world’,” reports Independent.
A businessman and Republican Party campaigner, Mr. Trump Jr. is very much like his father.
He supported efforts to “Build the Wall” against migrants entering the US from South America, said the risk of Covid being overstated and called for the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, in which his father lost against Joe Biden, overturned.
He was also named a “person of interest” in the ensuing Capitol riots, which left three people dead, reports Independent.
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