Man jailed for Facebook hate-speech

Stephen Birrell, a 28-year-old man, has been jailed for eight months in Glasgow Scotland after pleading guilty to posting hate-speech statements on Facebook.

According to media reports, Birrell made multiple posts on a Facebook page titled, “Neil Lennon Should be Banned”. Neil Lennon is the current manager of Glasgow football club Celtics FC.

The first post to garner notice said, “Hope they (Celtic fans) all die. Simple. Catholic scumbags ha ha”. The second employed regional slurs for Catholics, and stated, “Proud to hate Fenian tattie farmers. Simple ha ha.” The last message brought before the court also referred to Catholics disparagingly, saying, “They’re all ploughing the fields the dirty scumbags”.

Whilst sectarianism is an issue well dealt with on the fields and in the stands of Glasgow’s football fields, Glaswegian football clubs Celtic and Rangers set up a special task force to police related internet bigotry in March of this year.

This task force flagged and referred Birrell’s posting to relevant authorities.

In ruling on the matter, Sheriff Bill Totten of the Glasgow Sheriff’s Court said he wanted to send out “a clear message to deter others”.

“I am satisfied that the nature of this offence, and in particular your previous record, means that I require to impose a prison sentence on you.”

“I do want to make clear today that in selecting a prison sentence I also have in mind that the court should be sending out a clear message to deter others who might be tempted to behave in this way.”

“The use of modern communications to spread or support abuse or target groups of people because of their ethnic or racial background has no place in our modern society and has no place in genuine support for any football club.”

With examples such as the numerous blogs the Oslo bomber drew upon to write his manifesto, and the infamous racist Facebook photo, hate speech is, without doubt, rife on the internet.

Acknowledging this, South Africa’s chief prosecutor, Menzi Simelane, a prodigious social network user himself, recently called for the introduction of race crime legislation following the racist Facebook picture furore as well as greater policing of social network websites.

At the time he was quoted as saying that the legislation should identify “those acts which, in their commission, exhibit blatant racism or actions which society finds repugnant in their racial bias,” and should also extend to people who post offensive racist material on websites and social media networks”.