The Irish government has abandoned plans to implement controversial new hate speech laws following widespread backlash from free speech advocates.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee confirmed on Saturday that Dublin will drop new hate speech provisions in the proposed Criminal Justice Bill, admitting that the “incitement to hatred” section of the legislation did “not have a consensus,” the Irish Times reports.
Critics of the speech restrictions have noted that the government failed to actually define what constitutes “hate” and therefore the law would have given broad powers to the state to crush dissent. The scope of the draconian powers would have even included jailing people for up to two years for merely “possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics.”