This should make people's blood boil.

Someone posted Holocaust denial songs on their own blog, and because they were deemed "grossly offensive' the Magistrates Court sentenced her to 5 months in prison and a 12 month ban from social media. https://twitter.com/Evollaqi/status/1334806141965053952

She appealed to the Crown Court, they upheld her conviction.

She then applied for judicial review in the High Court, they upheld her conviction.

The original intent of the law (s.127 of the Communications Act 2003) was to prohibit in digital space what was already prohibited in physical space.

Ie just as free speech doesn't cover sending "grossly offensive" letters to someone, it wouldn't cover emailing the same.

But this piece of statute has been interpreted far more broadly, such that speech which would be permitted in physical space is proscribed in digital space.

The woman in question didn't email anyone, she posted on her own blog hyperlinks to YouTube videos of songs she had (perfectly legally) sung.

The courts in her case also said that if they could find the person who uploaded the songs to YouTube, they would be punished too.

Similarly, people have been criminally prosecuted and sentenced for Twitter tweets, Instagram posts, and Facebook comments.

The hypocrisy between this and "Je Suis Charlie" (even republishing the cartoons in 'solidarity') is especially galling.

The idea that the State can send men to kidnap you, and then lock you in a cage for months on end, and then tightly restrict your behaviour for many more months afterwards *just for saying things they were offended by* is barely comprehensible.

Remember that no one was even forced to look at these Holocaust denial songs.

They weren't posted by letter or emailed – or even on a social media platform – but posted on her own blog.

Of course, it goes without saying that Holocaust denial is false and despicable, and songs about it even more so.

But, so what? That doesn't justify kidnapping and locking people up in cages.

I'm shocked there hasn't been public outcry over this.

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

– Evelyn Beatrice Hall (often misattributed to Voltaire)

This is not the only area where British law chills speech.

Perhaps we're not as liberty loving of a nation as we like to think. https://twitter.com/jonbernhardt/status/1328839239514066946?s=19