SPEAK

A cornerstone of speech regulation, the POA 1986 addresses offenses like stirring up racial hatred and, more recently, religious and sexual orientation hatred. Its main points include:

• Part 3 (Racial Hatred): Outlaws threatening, abusive, or insulting words/behaviour intended or likely to incite racial hatred.
• Part 3A (Religious/Sexual Orientation Hatred): Criminalizes threatening words/behaviour intended to incite hatred based on religion or sexual orientation. Includes protections for criticism of religions.
• Section 4A (Intentional Harassment, Alarm or Distress): Covers threatening, abusive, or insulting words/behaviour meant to cause, and actually causing, harassment, alarm, or distress.
• Section 5 (Harassment, Alarm or Distress): Addresses threatening or abusive words/behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or displaying such written material, likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress. "Insulting" was removed from this section.

The MCA 1988 criminalizes sending communications intended to cause distress or anxiety. This law applies to letters, emails, text messages, social media posts, and any other form of communication.

Key Provisions:

• Section 1: Makes it an offense to send an indecent, grossly offensive, threatening, or false message with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
• Intent Requirement: The sender must intend to cause distress or anxiety, or be aware that the message is likely to do so.
• Content Categories: Messages must be indecent, grossly offensive, threatening, or contain known falsehoods.
• Scope: Covers both public and private communications, including private messages and group chats.

Penalties: Maximum sentence of 2 years imprisonment and/or unlimited fine. The law has been criticized for its broad scope and subjective terms like "grossly offensive" which can be open to interpretation.

Highly relevant for online speech, Section 127 of this Act criminalizes:

• Sending a grossly offensive, indecent, obscene, or menacing message via a public electronic communications network.
• Persistently using such a network to cause annoyance, inconvenience, or needless anxiety.

"Grossly offensive" is judged by the standards of an open, just, multi-racial society, considering context. The sender must intend the message to be grossly offensive or know it might be perceived that way.

The Terrorism Acts contain broad provisions that criminalize "glorification" of terrorism and the "encouragement" of terrorism, with terms defined so vaguely that they can capture legitimate political speech, historical discussion, and academic analysis.

• Section 1 (Encouragement of Terrorism): Makes it an offense to publish statements that are likely to be understood as encouraging or glorifying terrorism.
• Section 2 (Dissemination of Terrorist Publications): Criminalizes distributing publications that encourage terrorism or provide practical guidance for terrorist activities.
• Broad Definitions: "Terrorism" is broadly defined to include actions designed to influence government or intimidate the public for political, religious, racial, or ideological causes.

NCHIs are a controversial policing tool where incidents are recorded as "hate-motivated" even when no crime has been committed. They can have serious consequences despite not resulting in criminal charges.

• Definition: Any perceived hostility based on race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or transgender identity—regardless of evidence or intent.
• Recording: Police record these incidents permanently on their systems, often based solely on the "victim's" perception of hostility.
• Impact: NCHIs can appear on enhanced DBS checks, potentially affecting employment prospects in education, healthcare, and other sectors.

Legislation that regulates online content with concerning implications for free expression. The Act focuses on illegal content and content harmful to children, imposing duties of care on tech companies.

• Duty of Care: Imposes regulatory duties on tech companies to prevent users from encountering illegal content and content harmful to children.
• Enforcement: Ofcom can fine companies up to £18m or 10% of global turnover for non-compliance, but providers avoid liability by showing reasonable compliance.
• Impact: Creates a regulatory-risk based enforcement model that effectively outsources content moderation decisions to private entities.