Tillman on Today’s Speech Monitors: A Letter to the Editor in ‘The Irish Times’

 

 

Seth Barrett Tillman, Associate Professor

Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology

(academic title & affiliation for identification purposes only)

 

13 August 2024

 

The Irish Times

Letters to the Editor

lettersed@irishtimes.com

 

RE: Fintan O’Toole, ‘Musk is the Pablo Escobar of toxic disinformation’ The Irish Times (Dublin, 13 August 2024) 12.

Fintan O’Toole’s solution for what ails these islands is that Elon Musk be “held personally to the same standards of criminal justice” as others. Here, O’Toole recommends state imposed criminal sanctions for Musk’s speech and for Musk’s permitting others to speak on Twitter (now X). But O’Toole never explains what specific speech by Musk is at issue, and more importantly, what specific Irish or EU law was violated by that speech.

          Orwell’s 1984 was a period piece. It was fiction describing a dystopic future. For O’Toole, and other speech monitors, 1984 is a how-to guide for running today’s society. Perhaps, the greater danger is elsewhere?

Is mise, le meas, 

Seth Barrett Tillman

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Tillman on Today’s Speech Monitors: A Letter to the Editor in The Irish Times,’ New Reform Club (Aug. 13, 2024, 8:35 AM), [https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2024/08/tillman-on-todays-speech-monitors.html], in The Irish Times (Aug. 15, 2024, 12:05 AM), [https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2024/08/15/elon-musk-and-free-speech/].