Scotland's hate crime law targeted by JK Rowling and Elon Musk

The Scottish law came into force last week Makes it a criminal offense to incite hatred based on race, religion, transgender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability.

“If … it is intended to incite hatred because of their membership in that group, then that is a criminal offence,” Nick McKerrell, a law lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, said in a telephone interview on Monday. In Scotland, prosecutors recorded 1,884 hate crime charges related to sexual identity in 2022-2023 – an eighth consecutive increase from the previous year – in addition to 55 charges related to transgender identity.

Human rights groups say the change represents a much-needed expansion of hate crime protections, combining them into a single law for the first time. His opponents – including Harry Potter author JK Rowling – say they are concerned that the protections are so broad that they could unfairly criminalize free speech.

The furore underscores the polarizing impact of attempts by lawmakers around the world to strike a balance. The backlash to the law was so intense that it reportedly prompted far-right agitators to flood police with crime reports to inundate them in protest.

Legal experts and the Scottish government say the criminality threshold is high enough to prevent debate being suppressed and point out that the law should not be used to censor offensive or shocking jokes or views.

“The test is that it has to be threatening or offensive to someone or that it has to cause them fear or alarm,” McKerrell said. “That’s a very high threshold.”

Rowling – who lives in Scotland – wrote in a series of social media posts that misrepresented trans women and mocked their appearance that “freedom of speech and belief is at an end… when accurately describing one's biological sex is deemed criminal.” and called on Scottish Police to arrest her “if what I have written here qualifies as a criminal offence.”

Rowling's comments last week struck a chord Condemnation from human rights groups – Stonewall, Britain's largest LGBTQ charity, said they “trivialize the very real violence being perpetrated against us”. Scottish police said Rowling's comments “were not considered criminal and no further action would be taken,” the Associated Press reported.

Scotland's leader Humza Yousaf told the BBC that the newly created offenses “have a very high crime threshold.”

“JK Rowling's tweets may well be offensive, disturbing and insulting to trans people,” Yousaf said, “but that doesn't mean they rise to the criminal threshold of being threatening or offensive and inciting hatred.”

Outside the UK, Elon Musk and Joe Rogan were among prominent figures to criticize the legislation. In an episode of his podcast last month, Rogan described the new law as “ridiculous” and falsely suggested it empowered Police Scotland to target comedians.

Musk said in one post to X, it is “an example of why it is so important to protect freedom of expression.”

The billionaire has frequently spoken out on the issue, describing himself as a “free speech absolutist.” As part of its push to transform

McKerrell echoed Yousaf's Position and states that under the new law, neither misrepresenting a person nor making offensive jokes automatically constitutes a criminal offense. “There is protection for freedom of expression in the law. It specifically states that freedom of expression includes the right to be offensive, shocking or disturbing.”

The legal concept of protecting minority groups from hate speech is not new in Scotland, McKerrell said, but the law passed in 2021 and which came into force on April 1 extends this principle to other groups of people.

Age Scotland, a seniors' charity, welcomed the introduction of age as a protected characteristic, hoping it would give older people the confidence to report crime and deter potential offenders. Stonewall also welcomed the law, arguing that sexual minorities across the UK face “increasing hatred and escalating violence”.

On Sunday, the Observer newspaper reported that under the new law, neo-Nazi groups lodged mass complaints in an attempt to overwhelm Scottish police in protest.

Police Scotland has not released figures on the number of reports made under the new legislation, but Scottish media reported that police received 3,800 hate crime complaints in the first three days of the law. The Washington Post could not independently confirm this figure – compared to Scottish prosecutors' data, it would be more than half the total number of hate crimes reported last year.

Police Scotland confirmed it had seen an increase in online reports since the hate crime law came into force, but said it was too early to give the exact figure. “Although we have seen a significant increase in the number of online reports received since April 1, these were managed in our contact centers and had no impact on frontline policing,” it said in a statement on Sunday. Yousaf urged people last week: “Don't make offensive complaints… because what you are doing is wasting valuable police resources and time,” the press association said.

Adam Stachura, policy director at Age Scotland, told the Guardian: “We seem to have lost sight of the big question in this debate of how we can improve people’s lives and address the unbearable experiences of those subjected to hateful abuse are.” daily.”