What constitutes hate speech?

28 comments

1. I was suspended from instagram for hate speech for quoting Paulie from the Sopranos

2. depends on who you talk to

3. It’s not a thing in America, legally speaking.

4. The proposals I’ve read are that it is any speech that denigrates a protected class and/or makes a nonspecific call to action for harm against a protected class.

   Ultimately, if any of these proposals were put into law, it would be a violation of the speaker’s right to free speech and would be struck down as such.

   See also: various attempts at blasphemy laws throughout American history.

5. It is, quite literally, Orwellian. The term indicates more about the person using it than about the speech it’s applied to.

6. There is no legal definition of hate speech in the US. Most anything you consider hate speech is protected free speech.

7. It doesn’t exist legally

   It’s all subjective

8. There’s no legal definition, but broadly it would be speech denigrating someone for something they can’t help.

   IE: “You’re stupid” isn’t hate speech, but “You’re stupid because you’re black and because you’re black it is literally impossible for you to ever be smart” is hate speech.

9. There’s not really a unified legal concept for it in the US at the moment. Private entities, like say websites or forum moderators making content rules, that choose to enforce a concept of hate speech will be using their own definitions.

10. It depends on the website that you are using.

11. By itself, it doesn’t exist legally as speech is protected by the first amendment. But there is an exception to this. Hateful speech on the basis of race, religion, gender, etc. when combined with certain crimes can constitute a hate crime, depending on the motivation for that crime

12. If you’re asking because a reddit mod or other social media site banned you for it, you likely just offended the wrong person. It doesn’t matter if what you were saying was actually hateful.

    I remember in 2020 I got banned from tons of subs for hate speech. What was actually said was some variation of supporting a non nationalized approach to covid, as the 10th amendment dictates. The mental gymnastics went something like this – “He’s anti mask/vaccine mandate, so he must be a pro Trump, Qanon conspiracy theorist! We all know Trump is the embodiment of racism, so being anti mandate is inherently racist, making it hate speech”

    If you’re asking what legally defines it, it’s speech that compels a crime based on race/gender/identity. “I hate black people” is *hateful*, legal speech. “Make it your mission to punch a black person tomorrow” is illegal hate speech because you convinced, or at least made an attempt to convince people to commit a racially based crime

13. Legally, there’s no such thing.

    Private companies can do what they want.

14. Depends on where you are. Different states have different laws.

15. Nothing.

16. We have freedom of speech here but that does not mean freedom from consequences. If a moderator on a private platform like reddit decides what you’ve said is out of line, it’s their prerogative to enforce their rules.

    It just means that the government can’t arrest you or fine you.

17. In America hate speech is any speech which someone hates to be allowed.

18. These days it seems almost anything can qualify. My wife was accused of it for saying “I hate Thai food.” when she and some acquaintances were talking about going out to lunch. The lady she was talking to was outraged (for real)… gave her a lecture on how her husband grew up in Laos with nothing and went through Cambodia and was almost killed by the Khmer Rouge and she needed to have more respect for Asians. (My wife has nothing against Asians, she just doesn’t like Thai food because it’s way too spicy… and I agree with her).

19. I was suspended from Facebook one time for using the phrase “silly Canadians.” Just don’t tell my employer.

20. Whatever “they” say at that moment in time.

21. The simplest answer to this is, *context*. It’s not exactly what you say, but also when you say it, how you say it, who you say it too and what you appear to want to accomplish or express with those words.

22. Read, “Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation (1978)” where George Carlin was taken to the supreme court for his Seven Dirty Words bit, that’ll tell you what everyone should know.

23. “Hate speech” isn’t a thing because it is so subjective. The problem with subjective rules is that they don’t have any real meaning.

    It is the impossible to have hate speech laws and also have free speech.

24. You are winning an argument with a leftist.

25. The constitution does not recognize “hate speach”

26. I had posts here removed for hate speech, because I suggested taurine helps with sleep. Hate speech is literally just whatever the left-aligned person wants to censor.

27. We don’t have that here, at least not in law

28. The legal profession would be forever indebted to you if can come up with a workable definition