Twitter users are expressing their support for people’s right to use so-called “hate speech” on social media, after the European Union (EU) announced they are working with Facebook and others to censor unwanted online speech within 24 hours.

Yesterday, it was reported that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have “signed up” to a new European Union (EU) “Code of Conduct”, pledging to censor and “criminalise” perceived “illegal online hate speech” as well as “promoting independent counter-narratives” that the EU favours.

Members of the European Parliament were swift to tell Breitbart London that it was “Orwellian,” digital freedom groups pulled out of discussions with the EU, and by the end of the day Index on Censorship, the National Secular Society, the Open Rights Group, and the U.S.-based Free Press all slammed the “Code of Conduct”.

Now, everyday users of the platform Twitter are having their say under the trending hashtag #IStandWithHateSpeech.

https://twitter.com/OffencePolice/status/737752048230400000

https://twitter.com/spinosauruskin/status/737988493188685829

#IStandWithHateSpeech because to hate that which merits hate is healthy. — (@LaloDagach) June 1, 2016

"Hate speech" is a nonsense term invented by those who seek to control & censor.#istandwithhatespeech — Sithlord Sabrina ☠️ (@SabrinaLianne) June 1, 2016

This is ugly, but shouldn’t be a crime. Let him wear it and deal with the abuse he gets. #IStandWithHateSpeech https://t.co/kTBZBPDDGY — Pat Condell (@patcondell) June 1, 2016

When you drive hate speech underground is when you get problems. Hence #IStandWithHateSpeech trending hard — Martin Daubney (@MartinDaubney) June 1, 2016

https://twitter.com/Holbornlolz/status/737904494680395776

https://twitter.com/EnemyWithinn/status/737899534999814144

#IStandWithHateSpeech because I'd rather be dead than live in a world where these losers are the moral authorities. pic.twitter.com/2HLiYIXA9W — ✘ Æon ✘ (@X_Aeon_X) June 1, 2016

https://twitter.com/_ThatGuyT/status/737769885024059397

The definition of “hate speech” given in the EU document is: “all conduct publicly inciting to violence or hatred directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin”.

The arguments against it given on Twitter can be roughly divided between those who did not trust the EU to not politicise their definition of “hate speech”, and those who believe that in a free society even the most ugly, offensive speech should be protected – free speech fundamentalism.

The late Ronald Dworkin, a free speech fundamentalist, philosopher, defender of the 1st Amendment and critic of “hate speech” laws, argued in the wake of the Danish cartoon controversy that people’s right to grossly offend in a multicultural society should always be defended, otherwise the democratic legitimacy of the government was forfeited. He wrote: