Elon Musk among the international figures voicing dismay over Leo Varadkar's hate crime bill as pressure group Free Speech Ireland redoubles efforts to get it scrapped

The News Letter has previously reported on both the bill and the opposition to it, including Mr Musk’s past objections to it; full details here:

• What is in Ireland's new so-called 'thought crime' bill, how many years in jail can you get, and which parties are backing it?

• Twitter boss and space explorer Elon Musk says that Leo Varadkar 'hates the Irish people' as Dublin government tries to push through 'thought crime' bill

• Ireland's ‘hate speech’ law: TUV the sole party to comment on case as it issues a defence of freedom of expression

In short though, the bill seeks to criminalise what it called “incitement to violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of certain characteristics”, meaning things such as race, gender, religion, and “descent”.

It also seeks to create an offence of “condoning, denying or grossly trivialising genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace” (which has given rise to the question of whether Sinn Fein, one of the bill’s supporters, would fall foul of the new law due to its glorification of the Provisional IRA).

• Spokesman for Troubles victims says law criminalising the trivialisation of 'crimes against humanity' could end up being 'problematic' for republicans

This week an organisation called Free Speech Ireland – which was founded by students in University College Cork in 2018 – has launched a campaign called “bin the bill”.

In a statement, the group said: “Across Ireland our message will be displayed on billboards and social media platforms informing the Irish public of the threat that hate speech legislation poses to their right to free expression.”

It also quoted its chief executive Sarah O’Reilly as saying: “Helen McEntee’s legislation threatens to criminalise individual citizens for the mere possession of material deemed to be offensive, even if they had no intention of sharing it with others if they cannot prove this to be the case.

"This innocent until proven guilty framework is fundamentally incompatible with the principles of our democracy.

“Worryingly, this bill is likely to also impact freedom of speech across Europe and even the world, as it will make social media firms like X and Meta beholden to Irish censors.”

Helen McEntee is the minister for justice, serving under taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who is also the leader of her party, Fine Gael.

• WATCH – TD is shouted down in the Irish Parliament for raising public concerns about immigration after the Dublin riots: 'This is coming from ordinary people - the Irish people are not racist'

Among those voicing opposition to the bill in the last few days has been Mr Musk (169m Twitter followers), who reposted one of Free Speech Ireland’s videos, adding the comment: “Destroying freedom of speech means destroying democracy.”

UFC fighter Conor McGregor (10.4m followers) tweeted that he had signed a petition in support of the group, while author Michael Shellenberger (834,000 followers) tweeted: “Please share these posts and follow @FreeSpeechIre!!!”