Hacker News

points by MaxHoppersGhost 2 days ago | 0 comments

Make a joke about immigrants on twitter in the UK and you get arrested. Meanwhile there are more heat deaths in Europe than gun deaths in America. Most of Europe can't be called a free country anymore.

[–] protocolture 2 days ago

>Meanwhile there are more heat deaths in Europe than gun deaths in America.

This is a weird metric of freedom. It seems more like a reflexive, zeitgeist based response than any actual freedom metric.

In my experience the country with the most freedom is Canada. I have never seen anything like it. It's just so easy to do business there. Even if it wasn't that the laws enable it (they do) but even the way people operate. Being able to have a discussion with a customer without 12 rounds of a solicitor trying to insert dumb loopholes into a contract, costing the potential customer more in billable hours to their solicitor than the cost of the contract.

The USA is just junk. States that want to be Feds, Feds that want to be States, and when you cut through all the red tape you still have to deal with Litigious, ignorant Americans. Oh and if you want to import or export something just forget it.

"Oh but we have guns" is basically the exception that proves the rule, in a country where people get detained for such crimes as "Being beloved childrens author Mem Fox" or "Said naughty things on reddit" or "Working while waiting for Immigration to sort their status out".

But guns right. Guns. Woohoo freedom yeehaw guns.

[–] blitzar 2 days ago

> Meanwhile there are more heat deaths in Europe than gun deaths in America.

You suggesting that in the name of freedom - everyone must have air conditioning and cool their homes to 60F?

[–] nozzlegear 1 day ago

72f is more reasonable, I don't think anyone does 60f.

[–] blitzar 1 day ago

all those people doing 72f should be in prison for violating the terms of their freedom

[–] krior 2 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exce...

[–] skinfaxi 2 days ago

Wow, checkmate.

[–] cowlevel 2 days ago

What did they tweet, exactly?

[–] itake 2 days ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1iim9je/list...

I’m on my phone, so it’s a little bit difficult for me to find clear examples, but I think this post talks about some of those freedom of speech violations.

I might be completely wrong, but it seems like news articles are not repeating the messages that caused the arrest. They just seem to be reporting that the arrest happened and high-level description of the content.

[–] howunfortunate 2 days ago

Are there theoretical tweets for which you believe arrests are warranted?

[–] ChrisRR 2 days ago

Inciting violence

[–] _heimdall 1 day ago

I get that we have laws on the books making this illegal, but I still 100% disagree that the laws are constitutional.

People can say whatever they want without hurting anyone. In the case of incitement of violence, the issue is the person(s) who actually committed the violence, not a tweet online.

[–] Timwi 1 day ago

That is a very American perspective, which I like to think many people in the civilized world find irresponsible. (In the literal sense. You don't want to take responsibility for the consequences of your actions.)

[–] _heimdall 1 day ago

The line must be drawn somewhere, we don't hold everyone responsible for every action they take.

I'd compare "inciting violence" to a woman dressing in provocative clothing in a bad area of town late at night. Very few people would blame the woman and say she's legally responsible if she's attacked, I hold the same line on speech.

Say what you want, dress how you want, it doesn't matter. If another person actually causes harm they can't shirk the blame off on you, they made the choice to commit violence.

[–] Timwi 1 day ago

Nobody is talking about shirking any blame off. Maybe this is our disconnect. You think there must be one singular person to blame entirely. That if someone is held accountable for a consequence of their action, then no one else can. That is not how the real world works.

[–] ChrisRR 1 day ago

The laws are the constitution

[–] _heimdall 1 day ago

Laws and the constitution are very different.

Procedurally they require different actions to create or change. More fundamentally though, the constitution protects rights while laws limit them.

[–] sdoering 2 days ago

Yes.

[–] Timwi 1 day ago

It is a common misconception, partly intentionally perpetuated by the UK right-wing press, that people are arrested and jailed for making jokes or otherwise casually chatting on social media. If you dig deeper you'll generally find that people jailed for Twitter or Facebook posts went vastly beyond “telling a joke” or “saying something inappropriate”. The UK quite meaningfully prosecutes hate speech, death threats and similar felonies, and I for one don't want to live in a place that condones or even actively protects it. Downplaying it as “a joke about immigrants” plays right into the hands of the xenophobic right.

[–] braincat31415 1 day ago

Who defines what a "hate speech" is?

Here is one of the latest cases, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gz1qy30v5o Here is another one: "West Midlands Police arrested a 15-year-old boy named Fraser on August 3, 2026, after he published Facebook posts mocking Conservative Wolverhampton City Council member Simon Bennett." ...after posting an image of a politician with the bunny ears.

[–] Timwi 1 day ago

> Who defines what a "hate speech" is?

Who defines what is murder and what is self-defence? You already know the answer to this. The legislature.

Your first link is about police misconduct, not what the laws are or should be. Your second quote does not contain any of the relevant posts and just spews random unverifiable claims.

[–] braincat31415 1 day ago

"The legislature"

In other words, whoever is at power at the moment. There is no constitutional protection.

"police misconduct"... The OP said "It is a common misconception... that people are arrested and jailed for making jokes or otherwise casually chatting on social media". I gave you an example to the contrary. I do follow the UK news, and it's not hard to come up with multiple similar examples, there is no need to gaslight me. UK democracy has been somewhat waning lately.

As for the bunny ears story, not spews but says -- and type the headline into google, you'll get multiple sources. It is verifiable, you are just afraid to check lest it is actually true. Try harder.

  (\_/)
  ( •.• )
  c(")_(")

[–] kakacik 1 day ago

Maga logic, as typical as it can get right.

One suggestion - don't travel much around the world and certainly avoid backpacking and interacting with locals and understanding things like history or culture, you may eventually lose those... beautiful opinions of yours