The Government’s proposed hate speech legislation will make it an offence for any person, when a search warrant has been issued under this legislation, to refuse to provide police with their computer or phone passwords.
The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 states that it is an offence to refuse to provide police with “any password necessary to operate it and any encryption key or code necessary to unencrypt the information accessible by the computer.”
Those who refuse to provide the required information to police will have committed an offence punishable with a fine of up to €5,000 and imprisonment for up to 12 months.
A computer is defined, in the legislation, as “a personal organiser or any other electronic means of information storage and retrieval.”
The provision is only relevant in instances in which a search warrant has been issued by a judge of the District Court on the basis that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that evidence of, or relating to, an offence under section 7, 8, or 10 of the legislation can be found.
Section 7, 8, and 10 refer, respectively, to suspected “incitement to violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics;” “condonation, denial or gross trivialisation of genocide, etc., against persons on account of their protected characteristics” and “preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics.”
The Bill passed through the Dail last week, with 110 TDs voting in favour of the Bill moving forward. It will shortly go before the Seanad.
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