Scotland’s controversial new hate speech law went into effect Monday despite fierce backlash from critics. 'Scotland continues to infringe upon the right of her citizens to speak freely. This bill will force police to investigate those who ‘misgender’ someone online,' Thomas Corbett-Dillon, a former adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, told Fox News Digital.
But critics have still questioned those protections, with Faculty of Advocates’ Criminal Bar Association President Tony Lenehan worrying that the law could target journalists, comedians, debaters and dramatists, in comments to BBC last month. Those claims were pushed back on by Scotland’s national police, who denied that the agency would proactively 'target actors, comedians, or any other people or groups.