entry
July 2014
"Go Etna,
go Vesuvius, go Marsili!" Hate Speech?
Freedom
of speech has limitations. You may not incite
to violence or engage in defamation or slander, and
many societies have laws against spreading —and in
some places, simply expressing— views based on the
racial or ethnic superiority of one group over
another. The case of the hour in Italy at the moment
is based on the satellite pseudo-photo on the right.
It appeared recently on Facebook and has been
altered to show a truncated Italy. The central and
southern parts of the nation are missing, gone
beneath the blue waters of the Mediterranean; only
the north remains. It was accompanied by the comment
(in Italian): "The satellite has it right. Let's
protect our borders."
The photo was put up by a member of the
Northern League, (Lega nord). The full name is the
"Northern League for the Independence of Padania
(originally, an alternate word for the Po river valley but
now preempted by the Lega nord as the name for
their 'nation'. The term comes from the Latin word for the
Po river, Padus). The Lega (as it is called, for
short) is a regionalist party, founded in 1991 and one
that has at times threatened secession from Italy. The
Lega has a few members in the Italian and European
parliaments. So far, so good. If the phony photo had been
the end of the joke, it would still be, in the minds of
most, protected speech. Stupid and tasteless, yes, but a
crime?—no.
Enter
Donatella Galli (photo), outgoing provincial council
member of the Lega in Monza and Brianza. She came
across the photo, clicked "like" and then wrote the
comment: "Go Etna, go Vesuvius, go Marsili!" (Some
Europe-wide internet sources in English helpfully
misinformed readers, who presumably know where the
first two volcanoes are, that Marsili is "also in
Campania." Actually, Marsili is a giant submerged
volcano in international waters halfway between
Naples and Sicily. (See this
link.) (No matter; gotta get that scoop! I
doubt that Ms Galli knows where Marsili is, either.)
So far, still not a crime, but we're getting there.
Donatella's comment then goes viral, at least in the Italian blogosphere, and the next thing to appear on her Facebook page is this:
I'm a Lega bastard and proud of it. I want Vesuvius and Etna to massacre southerners. They are to me what the Jews were to Hitler and should all be put in the ovens.
No doubt, Donatella had forgotten not only that she is a public figure with responsibility to behave as if she really had something between her ears, but had also forgotten that almost anyone can hack into your Facebook account unless you protect it properly. That is apparently what happened. Anti-Lega elements (of whom there are many) made her look as bad as possible by putting up "hate speech" in her name. That kind of statement she supposedly made (but almost certainly did not) is actionable under Italian law and she was promptly denounced and formally charged by a Neapolitan politician. Galli firmly denies ever making the statement about the "ovens," although she clearly encouraged the volcanoes (and has not apologized for it). She will have to answer in court in Monza in October on charges of ...I'm not quite sure...the volcano remark? I doubt it. The other one? The one she didn't make? Her Lega supporters have already put lawyers on the trail of whoever hacked the offending passage into her Facebook page. The prosecution in the Galli case will demand damages, all of which will go to charity. The Lega supporters on the trail of the hacker(s) will demand damages, all of which will go to charity. So maybe someone will get something out of this idiocy.
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