Elon Musk says he will fund Irish legal challenges to hate speech legislation

James Cox

Elon Musk has said his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, will fund Irish legal challenges to hate speech legislation.

In an interview with Gript, the billionaire said said X’s default position is that it will challenge any laws it believes would infringe upon someone’s ability to “say what they want to say”.

Mr Musk was referring to the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said there will be progress on the Bill early in 2024.

Mr Musk said: "We obviously have standing as our European Headquarters are in Ireland, we have a big office in Ireland, a big presence in Ireland so we obviously have standing.

"We will also fund the legal fees of Irish citizens who want to challenge the bill, so we'll make sure that if there is an attempt to suppress the voice of the Irish people that we do our absolute best to defend the people of Ireland and their ability to speak their mind."

Mr Musk, who has previously described himself as a "free speech absolutist", said people should be concerned at the Government defining what hate speech is.

“People should be extremely concerned about that. You’re just at the mercy of the ruling party and whatever bureaucrats they put in place. And they can just define something that really is not hate speech as hate speech just because they don’t like it.”

The Bill looks to amend the law "relating to the prohibition of incitement to violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of certain characteristics (referred to as protected characteristics) of the person or the group of persons and to provide for an offence of condoning, denying or grossly trivialising genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace".