WA: White Man Charged with Inciting Racial Hatred via Memes on Gab

[Br.IanVonTurpie]

West Australia will soon be banning Gab.com ...

https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/woden-the-bogan-tests-australian-power-to-police-online-racism-20211108-p5973r.html

A Perth nightclub manager has become the first person in Australia to be convicted of the charge of 'publication of material to incite racial hatred', after he made hundreds of racist posts with a fake online profile.

A covert West Australian police operative spent months tracking Jason Murtagh's racist posts as online identity 'Woden the Bogan' in a notorious social media haven for right-wing extremists.

Murtagh was formerly bar manager at popular late-night, eclectic music club Fly By Night in Fremantle, south of Perth, which was known to host worldly performances where "everyone was welcome".

But after losing his job he posted hundreds of racist and vilifying comments and memes on "free speech" social media site Gab.com, which mimics Facebook but does not block or retract posts

The police prosecutor argued in court that Gab encouraged the "most dangerous and offensive underground cultures" in inciting extreme right-wing harassment of Asian, African American, Islamic and Indigenous people.

From April 24 to August 17, 2020, Murtagh posted racially offensive memes, including to a private community group called Politically Incorrect.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Vanessa Day submitted more than 120 pages of "exhaustive" racist posts by Murtagh, which she later argued were "far more extreme than the comments from genuine Gab loyalists".

In more extreme posts, Woden the Bogan spoke of running over people with a truck or setting his dogs upon them, and recalled a Perth train ride in which he counted the ethnicities in the carriage in racist language.

Police were alarmed at the comments that followed, which suggested Murtagh could assemble an army of "Aussies who are staunch racists, like myself" in regional parts of WA

Murtagh is the only person to have been charged in WA with publication of material to incite racial hatred, which carries a five-year maximum jail term.

He also is the first to test Australia's powers to police racist social media posts ... Racial Vilification laws, under which Mr Murtagh was charged, in 2004.

While other states have comparable laws, WA is the only state to detail "conduct likely to incite racial animosity or racist harassment" which in this case was the publication of online material

New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania have recorded no convictions for inciting racial hatred, so far, with two cases currently before NSW courts. Queensland legislation that covers racial vilification is currently being examined by a Parliamentary inquiry.

The Australian National University College of Law senior lecturer Dr Faith Gordon said cyber-racism was incredibly difficult to prosecute but had become more prevalent with the rise of social media.

"More people are looking into its effects and how it relates to the law because right now it is challenging to advocate on behalf of victims when the perpetrators are anonymous online," she said.

"It is extremely difficult to provide victims with adequate redress after the damage is already done."

Murtagh was found guilty, with the court accepting he didn't have to be racist or intend to racially vilify to have committed a crime that was "utterly deplorable". But he did not have to serve jail time

In light of the unusualness of the case and Murtagh not being in the league of an entrenched Nazi sympathiser or white supremacist, with no prior record of such behaviour, Fremantle Magistrate Adam Hills-Wright last Monday deemed a $4000 fine appropriate

With thanks to the Online Hate Prevention Institute for sharing the Abo Memes.

  Post on a forum like this in WA, then the thought police  are Comming for you! Geez $4K AUD for making funny memes and having a joke or even dissenting to multiculturalism! Perhaps I'll claim Asylum in the US like the Singapore guys do when the thought police come for them?!

[Rev.Cambeul]

Police were alarmed at the comments that followed, which suggested Murtagh could assemble an army of "Aussies who are staunch racists, like myself"

With thanks to the Online Hate Prevention Institute for sharing the Abo Memes.