Count Dankula's Hate Speech Trial

Overview

Count Dankula's Hate Speech Trial refers to a criminal trial in which Scotland resident Mark Meechan was convicted of violating the United Kingdom's Communications Act of 2003, which prohibits posting "grossly offensive" messages on the internet.^[9]

Background

On April 11th, 2016, Meechan uploaded a video titled "M8 Yer Dugs A Nazi," in which he begins by claiming his girlfriend constantly raves about how "adorable" her pug dog Buddha is, leading him to "turn him into the least cute thing that I can think of, which is a Nazi." Meechan then repeatedly asks the dog "do you want to gas the Jews?" and says "seig heil to lead the dog to raise a paw. At the end of the video, Meechan adds, "I'm not racist by the way, I just really wanted to piss her off." After YouTube disabled sharing on the video, a mirror was uploaded by YouTuber nothingworthofqualitywillcomeoutofthischannel (shown below).

Developments

Arrest

On April 28th, 2016, Scottish police arrested Meechan for "alleged publication of offensive material online" in violation of the Communications Act of 2003, according to a spokeswoman for the police department.^[1] On May 9th, The Guardian^[11] published a statement by Scotland Detective Inspector David Cockburn:

Posting offensive material online or in any other capacity will not be tolerated and police will act swiftly to tackle hate crimes that are motivated by malice or ill-will because of faith, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability. This clip has been shared and viewed online, which ultimately has caused offence and hurt to many people in our community. There is no place for hate crime in Scotland and police take all reports of incidents seriously.

Meechan's Response

On May 13th, 2016, Meechan appeared on Infowars, during which explained the criminal case against him (shown below).

On October 25th, 2017, Meechan uploaded a comedy sketch in which he berates the dog for being a white supremacist before cutting to a "We Are Number One" remix video featuring the pug (shown below).

On September 13th, 2017, the Scottish newspaper The Herald^[10] published an interview with Meechan's girlfriend Suzanne Kelly, who claimed her dog would "lift his paw for virtually anything" and that Meechan "never expressed anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic" and had "always been very supportive towards minority groups."

Verdict

On March 20th, 2018, YouTuber Tommy Robinson streamed an interview with Meechan prior to the verdict (shown below). In the interview, Meechan insists he is "not a Nazi, not a racist, not a bigot or anything like that."

That day, Meechan posted a tweet revealing that he had been found guilty and was awaiting his sentence (shown below). Within four hours, the tweet gained over 6,900 likes and 3,900 retweets.^[3]

Following the trial, YouTuber Tailed Feature uploaded a post-trial interview with Meechan, in which he reiterated that the video was just "a joke," criticized the verdict for not taking the video's context into consideration and ended the interview by saying "don't let your memes be dreams" (shown below).

Online Reaction

That day, threads about the conviction reached the front page of /r/Scotland,^[5] /r/ Drama^[6] and /r/KotakuInAction.^[4] Meanwhile, a thread about the verdict were removed from /r/worldnews.^[7] That same day, YouTuber Sargon of Akkad posted a video about the verdict titled "BREAKING: Count Dankula Convicted (#GrosslyOffensive)" (shown below).

On March 20th, 2018, comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted about the conviction, adding "if you don't believe in a person's right to say things you might find 'grossly offensive', then you don't believe in Freedom of Speech" (shown below).^[1] Within three hours, the tweet gained over 30,300 likes and 13,700 retweets.

Jonathan Pie Video

On March 22nd, 2018, YouTuber Jonathan Pie uploaded a video titled "It's a JOKE!", in which he criticized the verdict and proceeds to mimic a Nazi march and singing a song from the musical "Springtime for Hitler" outside the Sheriff Court in Airdrie, Scotland (shown below).

On March 27th, Pie tweeted a screenshot of a direct message conversation with the Met Contact Centre Twitter feed complaining about the video, to which the feed responded "if you feel personally offended by this we can arrange to come and see you to take a report" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 4,200 likes and 2,000 retweets.

That day, Twitter user @NimbleNavigati1^[12] posted a tweet revealing that the message sent to the police was "an experiment," adding "it's just as dystopian as we thought."

Sentencing

On April 23rd, 2018, Meechan was ordered to pay a fine of £800 (approximately $1117 USD) in lieu of a prison sentence. During sentencing, Sheriff Derek O'Carroll delivered various remarks to Meechan, accusing the video of normalizing "anti-Semitic attitudes" and provoking "unpleasant anti-Semitic messages," adding:

"I also found it proved that the video contained anti-Semitic, and racist material, in that it explicitly and exclusively referred to Jews, the Holocaust and the role of the Nazis in the death of six million Jews in a grossly offensive manner. You knew or must have known that. As a matter of law, the test is not whether the video was offensive but whether it was grossly offensive. I concluded….that your video was not just offensive but grossly so, as well as menacing, and that you knew that or at least recognized that risk.”

In an interview outside of the courthouse, Meechan revealed that he would be appealing the decision (shown below). That day, posts about the sentencing reached the frontpage of the /r/The_Donald,^[13] /r/KotakuInAction^[14] and /r/TheDickShow^[15] subreddits. Meanwhile, several news sites published articles about the sentencing, including The Independent,^[16] Motherboard^[17] and Newsweek.^[18]

Appeal

On August 7th, 2018, Meechan uploaded a video titled "My Appeal Has Been Rejected," in which he revealed that Scottish courts had rejected his appeal (shown below). Additionally, Meechan revealed he would refuse to pay the fine and continue to fight against the ruling, including going to jail if necessary, saying "I will not bend the fucking knee" (shown below).

"I’m going to jail. I’m obviously not happy about the fact that I’m going to have to go to jail, but I’m more than prepared to do it for what I believe in. I absolutely refuse to sacrifice my principles."

Shortly after, Meechan tweeted photographs of his first appeal rejection letter (shown below).

Search Interest

External References