Speaker: GYLA used Brussels funds to normalise verbal abuse, but the ECHR ruled hate speech is not free speech

“The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs noted that the expression of hatred on social media changed radically just two weeks after the new division became operational. It turns out that solving the problem was remarkably easy. It shows how we were being gaslit under the guise of freedom of expression, when in reality, it was being used as an instrument to spark division and control the public,” stated the Speaker of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili.

According to him, hate and its incitement, which has ironically been branded as a symbol of pro-Europeanism, is actually a tool designed to subjugate nations.

“The principle that operated back in ancient Rome still applies today: divide and rule. They divide us in this manner to dominate us, to brainwash people and force them to toe their party line. One of the primary goals of this hate speech was to suppress and bully individuals so they would not dare express their own opinions, including on social media. This is exactly what these supposedly ‘pro-European’ approaches to freedom of expression have brought us.

In May, GYLA (Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association) lost its case at the Strasbourg Court. The European Court of Human Rights explicitly ruled that hate speech is not a component of freedom of expression. And whose money was GYLA using to pursue this? Funded by Brussels, GYLA was attempting to protect and normalise abuse, insults, and hate speech in Georgia. If the ambassadors who finance this organisation feel no shame when exposed for using their funds to encourage hate speech, what more can I say? They were spending the money of European Union citizens to foster and normalise the expression of hatred. This case has once again exposed whose interests these foreign-funded NGOs truly serve, and it is reassuring that Strasbourg has delivered a definitive response to this matter,” Shalva Papuashvili stated.