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by illumen 3841 days ago
The freedom of speech applies when other people than the government are calling for it to be stopped.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights for example does not say "it only applies to when a government are restricting those rights".

Article 19

1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.

2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:

(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;

(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.

1 comments

Only the government can provide legal rights. Human rights are ideals, not actual things.

Regardless, the real point is that property rights trump free speech rights. You can't come over to my house and say whatever you want, because it's private. And I'm pretty sure the UN DoHR says the same thing.

And further, given the leftist thing that it is, I'd bet dollars to donuts that the UN DoHR also says people have the right not to be on the receiving end of speech that incites violence towards them, a.k.a. hate speech. So... property rights > hate speech rights > free speech rights.

I'd bet dollars to donuts that the UN DoHR also says people have the right not to be on the receiving end of speech that incites violence towards them

Article 12 prohibits "attacks" against "honour and reputation", which is vague enough to justify all sorts of "hate speech" prohibitions. (And ridiculous libel laws like in the UK).