Billionaire Elon Musk announced on Wednesday that he would fund possible appeals against the future Irish law to combat online hate, particularly on social networks, which he accuses of restricting freedom of expression.
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This bill, which will be voted on in the Irish Parliament in the coming weeks, includes in particular measures to combat hate speech, including on social networks.
“We will ensure that if there is an attempt to weaken the voice of the Irish people, we will do our best to defend the Irish people and their ability to assert their point of view,” the social network boss said (Twitter) . an interview with the Irish website Gript.
“And we will also fund the legal costs of Irish citizens who wish to challenge this law,” he added.
According to the Irish government, this law will replace previous outdated and inappropriate texts to combat the spread of hate speech online.
The text provides for criminalizing “incitement to violence or hatred against a person or group of people based on certain characteristics” such as race, gender or religion.
It will also create a new criminal offense for publishing content “that is likely to incite violence or hatred.”
Since purchasing Twitter in October 2022, which was later acquired in
The billionaire regularly reiterates his vision of freedom of expression and rejects any “censorship”, even as he assures that he respects the laws of each country.
X, whose European headquarters are in Dublin, has been particularly accused of having helped fuel the situation during the recent riots that rocked the Irish capital last November, supported in particular by the messages of far-right activists on this social network.
Parliamentarians and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar then called on tech giants to be more proactive in the face of far-right activism online.
Leo Varadkar said he supports laws allowing the prosecution of account holders with racist content.
“Paradoxically, the Irish Prime Minister hates the Irish,” commented Elon Musk on X.