Citizens Debate the Nice Act
EBC Update
Written by JayDee
(September 26, 2017) After months of Aditya Republic’s “nice” comments, many citizens found themselves fed up with the citizen’s antics. In a moment of frustration, Deputy Speaker Skizzy Grey brought a proposal to the Senate, seeking to stop the habits of one of Europeia’s citizens. Opening up the thread, Skizzy justified this proposal on the grounds that Aditya’s posts have been “ubiquitous, one-word, content-less free posts.” Following his justification, an amendment to the Criminal Code (2014) was proposed.
Skizzy Grey’s proposal earned the immediate support of multiple citizens; Minister of Radio Siol opened the thread with a comment to Skizzy, “thank you Skizzy for writing this masterpiece, I hope to see this pass.” Others within the thread joined Siol in his support of the amendment. Fed up with the antics of Aditya, all of them were ready to see a stop put to the issue at hand.
The movement of support was quickly put to a stop though, with many citizens believing the amendment to be over excessive and a blatant attack on one citizen. Assembly Chair GraV came out against the amendment initially, “are we really going to amend a law in order to prosecute a single person?” Others shared their clear sentiment with the Assembly Chair, believing the amendment to be a breach against the Charter of Rights.
In opposition, a new face to Europeia took center stage. Steven G. Eastridge made a very bold stand against the amendment. In his argument, he accused the amendment of being “morally unacceptable.” He accused many in the thread of adopting a “mob mentality” against Aditya Republic. Steven also brought up s2 of the Charter of Rights, which is the relevant section guaranteeing right of free speech to all citizens. Steven capped his argument with a definition of the word “nice,” which has become Aditya’s favorite word in the past few months. Steven’s comments garnered support from Comrade Snowball, who agreed with his assertions that the proposal was a blatant attack on one person.
Many were quick to criticize Steven’s brash comments. Arguing that the amendment is not meant to target one person. Minister of Interior XIV was the first to criticize the comment, “I'm not a fan of legislation targeting a single person, but I don't really see this as that. Yes, Skizzy named Aditya directly in his post, but the legislation itself does not name him. His name is included as an illustration of the kind of behavior that was not foreseen when the criminal code was written.” The Minister’s arguments were supported by others, including Skizzy Grey and Vice President HEM himself.
In a comment, HEM argued that Europeia had to be more restrictive of its free speech than RL countries. “I also think that Europeia probably will not, and should not, have the same standards of liberal free speech as the United States. A free nation can perhaps tolerate hate between two groups thousands of miles a way, but a community of 40ish people who all interact very closely probably can not.”
The debate in the senate was no different, with a very polarized opinion of the amendment. Speaker Drecq was quick to make his opinions known. Utilizing many of the same arguments brought up in the Citizens’ Assembly against the proposal. “I think his posts are annoying, but I also think that if we change the law to prohibit something not harmful, but merely annoying then we’ve taken a step in the wrong direction.”
Senator Festavo also called the amendment absurd, believing that a “motion to table” could be prosecuted under this amendment. Skizzy Grey immediately came to the defense of his proposal. “I think the behavior to be banned is repetitive posting that a reasonable person would conclude is not intended to express an idea or otherwise advance the discussion.”
With General Elections on the horizon, the future of this proposal remains unclear. The “Nice” Act has been a topic of fierce debate amongst the population and may end up being a deciding factor for many come this election cycle.
