The thing about Europe: it's the actual land of the free now

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160 points cruzcampo | 1 comments | 11 Apr 25 08:04 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

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MrBuddyCasino ◴[11 Apr 25 08:44 UTC] No.43651689[source]▶

> "Europeans can say almost anything they want, both in theory and in practice."

David Bendels has been threatened with prison time and sentenced to seven months of probation for a Twitter meme [0]. It is the harshest sentence ever handed down to a journalist for a speech crime in the Federal Republic of Germany.

This is the tweet, poking fun at the German minister of the interior Nancy Faeser (the sign says "I hate free speech"):

https://x.com/Deu_Kurier/status/1762895292075053348

[0] https://www-welt-de.translate.goog/politik/deutschland/artic...

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anon_e-moose ◴[11 Apr 25 09:20 UTC] No.43651974[source]▶

>>43651689 #

If grandma can't tell that the picture is edited, then it's no longer a meme, it's slander.

The comedic value would be even higher if it was an obvious tongue-in-cheek edit. Given it's professionally and seamlessly edited, then it's too ambiguous to be a meme and thus should not be protected as free speech.

replies(1): >>43652167 #

1. MrBuddyCasino ◴[11 Apr 25 09:51 UTC] No.43652167[source]▶

>>43651974 #

If you think the standard for free speech should be delineated by what the most clueless members of society can grasp, then you're effectively anti free speech.

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