Should freedom of speech allow individuals to convey hatred towards a group of people?
Freedom of speech has led to several social changes such as passing of the law of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the United States of America which made discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin unacceptable. Martin Luther King accessed his ability to speak freely about his beliefs which eventually eradicated the segregation of black people in the United States of America. This makes it clearly evident that freedom of speech has helped to establish equality, justice and freedom to a certain extent. However, the question I will be addressing in this presentation is ‘Should freedom of speech allow individuals to convey hatred
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However, derogatory and hate comments aimed at general groups of people remains unrestricted. Japan claims that ‘hate speech has never reached such a point as to warrant legal action’ [3]. Therefore, the government sees no reason as to why hate speech should be banned. A prime example of hate speech taking place in Japan was in 2015 when a 14-year-old Japanese girl called out “Get out of our country” and “kill, kill, kill Koreans” through a loudspeaker [4]. In this situation, I think that hate speech should have certain limits because a girl as young as 14 is making unnecessary comments. Nothing is being gained from using these derogatory comments except for emotional abuse that is completely ignored by the police as, according to them, it is “freedom of speech.” This event has highlighted the fact that children are influenced by the environment and people around them so why should the government not criminalise hate speech in Japan? This could eventually have a devastating effect on future generations because children are being taught that it is acceptable to oppose a certain group of people simply because it is a human right. It can also be argued that it is a human right to have dignity and the ability to be proud of what group you originate from without receiving hate.
The Constitution of India consists of hate speech laws that aim to prevent unjustness towards ethnic and religious communities. The law means that if a citizen is disrespectful "on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever" they can be punished. The laws specifically forbid anyone from outraging someone's "religious