Extradited 4 Free Speech?

If you’re in the US, could you be arrested for violating a foreign country’s online speech laws?

Yes at least in theory. Through a process called extradition, a foreign country (like the UK for example), could decide that you’ve violated their new “Online Safety Act”  (OSA), and have you arrested in the US.  What’s more, under the terms of the treaty, the UK could have your assets seized too. 

Fortunately, the chance of this happening is still pretty low but with the passage of laws like the OSA and others elsewhere abroad, the risk of criminalization of 1st Amendment rights has increased considerably. 

To be fair there are some safeguards in the treaty; But those provisions were created before most of the so-called “online speech crimes” were even on the books and the language used was geared towards stopping “mallum in Se” (intrinsically evil”) crimes like murder, theft and similar. In such cases, extradition made sense — if an American hacked a British bank and stole money while on US soil, arresting him and shipping him to the UK to stand trial is ok. 

But the United States  (and other countries), won its independence to prevent the Crown from criminalizing words and treaties cannot be allowed to undo that, even if only by accident. The paradox of a free Republic is that, it’s frequently when a right is abused that it is hardest and most important to uphold.

And so, whether you’re an American or not, it is important to keep an eye on the unintended consequences of even well-meaning new laws. And perhaps the real question is, even if it feels good sometimes, should there even be “speech crimes”?

What do you think?