[Imc-uk-process] UK Law and Incitement, was: Re: Incitement Guideline?

[anargeek]

Hi

I have been thinking about the issue of "incitment" and
the legal situation.

I don't think we should base what we accept on the site on
an understanding of what might be legal and what might not
be legal in the UK.

For example, in the UK "incitement to racial hatred" was
established as an offence by the provisions of §§ 17-29 of
the Public Order Act 1986 [1] but we *don't* base what we
consider to be racist on the UK legal situation -- we
simply hide things that we find unacceptable.

And I expect that a lot of us wouldn't support some of the
effects of this law even though we are totally opposed to
racism.

So, I don't think we should get hung up about what might
or might not be considered legal if it were tested in a
court of law but rather we should base our actions on what
we find acceptable and what we don't find acceptable.

It's not our job to interperate and enforce UK law and I
really don't think we should go down that road -- I have a
feeling it would lead to somewhere we don't want to be...

Chris


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incitement_to_ethnic_or_racial_hatred#United_Kingdom