X will pay legal fees of Irish people challenging McEntee's hate speech bill - Elon Musk

Billionaire businessman and owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, has vowed to pay for Irish citizens to challenge the impending Hate Speech Bill. 

Musk made the promise during an online discussion with Gript's Ben Scallan via X's Spaces function earlier today (Tuesday January 23). 

Responding to a question by Scallan on whether Musk believes X has the legal standing to challenge Ireland's hate speech laws, he said, "Our default position is to challenge any legislation that infringes upon the people's right to say what they want to say, and we obviously have standing since our European headquarters are in Ireland. 

"We have a big office in Ireland, a big major presence in Ireland so we obviously have standing, and we will also fund the legal fees of Irish citizens that want to challenge the bill as well. 

"So we'll make sure that if there's 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." 

It's not the first time Musk has commented on the matter; according to the Irish Independent, the entrepreneur was accused of "showboating" by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar when Musk previously suggested he would challenge hate speech laws in court. 

A self-described free speech advocate, Musk told Scallan: "I think it's pretty obvious that free speech is the bedrock of democracy, and if you lack free speech it's impossible to have a proper democratic process because people aren't aware of the facts, or they're being mislead.

"People have to be able to speak their mind within the context of the law and without that you don't have a real democracy. 

"Generally you want to be concerned about any terminology that could be found in a George Orwell novel. These bills will generally be named in ways that sound innocuous and like 'Sure, why wouldn't anyone support that?' but when you look at the details it's often the opposite of what the title of the bill is or it's disingenuous." 

He continued: "So if the government is given broad powers to define what hate speech is, they can easily define things that doesn't support the ruling party effectively. It is a way for whoever's in charge to cement their power." 

The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 put forward by the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee - colloquially known as 'the Hate Speech Bill' - is currently with the Seanad and is expected to be enacted into law despite the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 currently being in place. 

The 1989 Act states "it is an offence to communicate threatening, abusive or insulting material that is intended, or likely to, 'stir up' hatred against a group of people because of their race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origins, membership of the travelling community or sexual orientation'. 

The new Hate Speech Bill - which will create new laws to deal with hate crimes, expand protected characteristics to include gender identity and express and disability, and make it an offence to deny or trivialise genocide - will replace the Act. 

The new Bill describes a hate crime as "any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim, or any other person, to have been motivated by prejudice based on a person’s age, disability race, colour, nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender. Ireland does not currently have specific laws that deal with hate crimes". 

Almost 80,000 people listened to Musk and Scallan's conversation live on X.