[akimbostrawman]

Let's see how much those EU charter papers are worth when you get arrested for a tweet, which happens a lot.

Vague Hate speech laws alone can utterly remove any of those "human rights". In Germany and the UK people get charged for jokes or sarcastically criticizing politicians all the time. That is not free speech or even free expression regardless how much you want to cope to own musk or whoever the news told you to hate this week.

[Anamon]

People get arrested for tweets like calling for the homes of asylum seekers to be set on fire. Something like this, clear and direct calls for violence and criminal acts, usually turn up when you research any of those cases brought as examples for censorship in the EU or UK.

[akimbostrawman]

>People get arrested for tweets like calling for the homes of asylum seekers to be set on fire.

No but nice strawman straight out out of the eu oligarch handbook. Threats and calls to violence are already a crime even in the US and rightfully so.

10 seconds of research would show you criticism and jokes will get you prosecuted and raided:

https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/11/german-police-raid-mans-ho...

https://www.mainzer-medieninstitut.de/erfolglose-verfassungs...

Looking forward to your on topic justification.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

There is a difference between the EU and the UK: the UK is no longer a signatory to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. On the other hand, it is still a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights, but of course there has been a sustained, concerted effort to exit it, disparage it as "a villain's chapter" etc, at least since I've been in the country (2005).

The environment in the EU and the UK is also very different in terms of freedom of speech. In the UK for example I've kept tabs on people being put in jail for completely ludicrous reasons, like a kid who was accused of planning a Sandy Hook - like attack because he had a backpack with batteries, stones and ziplocks in it, and a young woman who was put in jail for writing poetry, with themes interpreted as terrorist sympathy. Unfortunately my bookmarks are on my other computer and I can't access them now and a search online only brings up more current cases that I don't know much about because I haven't looked into them yet, so I'll have to ask you to just have to believe me about that.

On the other hand you can find plenty of information about Drill music used as evidence in criminal trials, which is also a form of criminalisation of expression that should be banned under both the EU and CoE laws:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-600703...

Then again there is the appalling treatment of climate activists and anti-war protesters in the UK, like for example the recent proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation and the arrest of hundreds of its supporters that followed. But I believe that protesting e.g. the carnage in Palestine is not treated much better in Germany or France.

The important thing to keep in mind however is that all of that is the result of authorities overstepping bounds and claiming for themselves powers that they don't have, which happens in such freedom of speech-loving countries like the US even more often. The fact of the matter is that the law of the land protects freedom of expression and we do not live in some dystopian dictatorship where you're bundled up if you so much as dare to make a squeak about the government, or the authorities.

Using a banned ad to claim otherwise is simply disingenuous.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

It's too bad I can't block users who think offending their interlocutor is a form of debate on HN. I do not "cope" and I don't give a shit about Musk, he's the one who has faithful followers who parrot his ignorant bullshit on social media, which btw I do not follow. Don't sound like him and I won't wonder whether that's what you're doing.

Oh, and also Paul Graham.

[akimbostrawman]

What great counter to all my points and not deflection and tone policing instead of engaging in the actual discussion.