From the UK to Germany to Singapore: Police are watching what you post

This year, FIRE launched the Free Speech Dispatch, a regular series covering new and continuing censorship trends and challenges around the world. Our goal is to help readers better understand the global context of free expression. This is part two of this month’s entry. Part one covered Iran’s assassination attempts in the U.S., arrests of government critics around the world, and the latest in free speech tech news.

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UK censorship continues to go off the rails 

Do you know that well-memed scene from the TV show “Community” when the character Troy, carrying pizza boxes, returns to his apartment to find a house fire and a scene of pure chaos? That’s what it feels like every time I check the latest speech news in the UK.

Two UK trends that caught global attention in recent months — censorship of speech related to Israel and police attention on social media posts — are accelerating. Police detained Israeli academic and Jewish Network for Palestine founder Haim Bresheeth in London this month under the UK’s Terrorism Act for, as the arresting officer put it, “making a hate speech.” At a demonstration, Brasheeth said Israel “cannot win” against Hamas, Hezbollah, or “the united resistance to the genocide they have started.”

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Bresheeth is not alone in facing consequences for his words about Israel. Ten counter-terrorism police officers raided the home of journalist Asa Winstanley on Oct. 17 and seized his electronic devices. Winstanley writes at pro-Palestinian outlet Electronic Intifada and is a frequent critic of the Israeli government. The raid “was linked to some of his social media posts” and alleged “encouragement of terrorism.” Similarly, activist Sarah Wilkinson was detained in late August for “content that she has posted online” and her home and devices were raided. 

But it’s not just social media posts critical of Israel that can bring the police to your door. The Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson reported that she was visited by Essex Police on Nov. 10 over an alleged non-crime hate incident, or NCHI. Police create records of NCHIs when members of the public accuse individuals, who are often not informed, of noncriminal but hateful acts. It’s, for obvious reasons, a deeply troubling system to free speech advocates.

UK government issues warning: ‘Think before you post’

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Pearson says police would only tell her that the incident was related to a year-old post on X, but would not share what she had posted or who had accused her of the NCHI. Other outlets have reported that the post in question was Pearson’s retweet of “an image of two police officers at a protest standing next to two men holding a flag purported to be in support of Gaza” with the caption “Look at this lot smiling with the Jew haters.”

Essex Police disputed Pearon’s statement about being visited for an NCHI, and instead say she is under investigation for posting material “likely or intended to cause racial hatred.” Pearson’s tweet was apparently first handled by London’s Metropolitan Police as a possible Malicious Communications Act violation, then went to Sussex Police, who flagged it as an NCRI, too. Then, finally, it made its way to Essex Police and ultimately to Pearson’s front door.

This is just the latest high-profile incident suggesting the UK’s policing of online speech has tipped from troubling to unsustainable. But it’s no surprise, given that this summer the UK government warned quite literally: “Think before you post.”

Hong Kong executes its most brutal national security punishment yet

The repression continues full speed-ahead in Hong Kong. This week, a Hong Kong court convicted 45 individuals of conspiracy to commit subversion under the city’s 2020 national security law over their participation in an unofficial primary orchestrated by pro-democracy activists and politicians. The sentences ranged from four to ten years. When reading out their sentences, the judge referred “to them not by their names but by their numbers on a list.”

“We dared to confront the regime with the question: will democracy ever be possible within such a structure?,” journalist-turned-candidate Gwyneth Ho wrote in the aftermath of receiving her seven-year sentence. “The answer was a complete crackdown on all fronts of society.”

The latest developments in press freedom (or lack thereof):

• RTÜK, the Turkish state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating broadcast media shut down radio station Acik Radyo over a guest’s discussion about the Armenian genocide, a term the Turkish government disputes, in April. The station had already been punished for inciting hatred in that program.
• I’m glad to be able to share a positive update in a disturbing story I wrote up earlier this year about a court order in India that wound up limiting everyone’s access to reporting from Reuters. A report on alleged Indian hack-for-hire firm Appin is now back up on Reuters’ website, nearly a year after New Delhi’s North West district court issued an interim order requiring the piece’s removal after a lawsuit from a group associated with Appin. The court lifted the order last month. 
• But not all the news out of India is as promising. U.S.-based Wikimedia Foundation is the target of a defamation suit by Indian outlet Asian News International over the description of ANI as a government “propaganda tool” on its Wikipedia page. The court ordered that Wikimedia hand over the names of the page’s editors and it has agreed, though it’s unclear exactly what identifying information will be submitted. The court also directed the foundation to take down a Wikipedia entry on the legal battle itself, “probably the first time that a Wikipedia page in English language has been taken down after a court order.”
• An Algerian court sentenced journalist Badreddine Guermat to a year in prison for “insulting a state institution and its employees.” He had posted on Facebook about allegations of the government’s financial mismanagement. 
• Moroccan journalist and government critic Hamid Mahdaoui was sentenced to a year and half for defamation against Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi, who Mahdaoui accused of fraud.
• Former Wall Street Journal reporter Selina Cheng is suing the paper over her firing, which she said was a direct result of her successful campaign for chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, a press freedom group in the increasingly draconian city.

New bans on “propaganda”

Russia’s State Duma is cracking down on “childfree propaganda,” passing amendments banning material that “promotes a conscious refusal to have children.” New rules will ban websites and limit the distribution of films containing material that “advocates against childbearing” and issue fines up to $51,000. Promotion of the religious monastic lifestyle, however, will be exempt. Uzbekistan is looking to ban a form of so-called “propaganda,” too. Uzbek politician Alisher Qodirov wrote this month that he is “working on adopting a law prohibiting any kind of” LGBT propaganda.

You can’t post that!

• German police raided a 64-year-old man’s home “as part of nationwide police operations against suspected antisemitic hate speech online.” But that’s not all. The man is also facing prosecution for publicly insulting a political candidate — a crime that can result in prison time — by calling him a “professional idiot.”
• Maltese influencer Sarah Michelle Angelica Grech was found guilty of threats and incitement and fined €1,000 after posting a video where she jokingly asked her dog if they should “go burn the circus” after Grech witnessed a live duck being thrown into the audience there.
• Tehran authorities warned of charges against individuals who posted “false news” and spread “fear to harm the psychological security of society” on social media. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also threatened punishment of online pro-Israel sentiment.
• The cat-and-mouse game between China’s internet censors and its social media users continues. The latest volley comes from the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Education. They’re cracking down on memes and puns, which “form a hidden erosion on the daily communication and ideological values ​​of minors” and “can easily lead to adverse consequences.” Puns are often a clever way to get around banned words or phrases.
• A Moscow court handed down an eight-year prison term to a 59-year-old nurse for spreading “fake” information about the military online. She had condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and strikes that killed civilians.
• A Thai man was sentenced to nine years in prison, but granted a five-year suspension, for Computer Crime Act and royal defamation violations. He followed anti-monarchy groups and, in six Facebook posts, had defamed the monarchy.
• Hong Kong is brandishing its national security law against social media users. A 57-year-old man was charged this month for “seditious” online posts and inciting “hatred” against the government.
• Singaporean activist Kokila Annamalai is now facing investigation and a potential major fine and prison sentence for refusing to append a government-demanded correction to her social media posts criticizing Singapore’s laws and death penalty system. Annamalai is “believed to be the first person within Singapore to defy its online misinformation law.”

Free speech champion: bureaucratic incompetence?

I’m ending this month’s newsletter with some good news that is also, frankly, pretty funny. India is poised to end its 35-year ban on Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” because no one can find the 1988 Ministry of Finance documentation banning import of the book. The Delhi High Court overturned the ban this month after no government agencies were able to obtain the decades-old order from customs authorities.