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Comment by Jasper_ | Hacker News Reader

These rules typically get applied in ways that advantage the already privileged. e.g. privileged people can say mean stuff online to those under them, but those without such power will go to jail for trying to expose the crimes or bad behaviors of those they work for.

Basically, Masayoshi Son won't ever go to jail (he's too important to go to jail), but someone trying to expose his financial crimes will.

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To give a concrete example for this, here in Germany we have laws against insulting others. These have pretty strict requirements, and almost never get in front of a judge. Last year, some guy in Hamburg called the minister of interior of the state a "Pimmel", a dick, and his house was raided by law enforcement, his and his ex-girlfriends electronic devices confiscated. [0]

Meanwhile, a german talk show thought they'd see how police deal with hate speech being reported by normal people, and found that it was very hard to get anywhere - even stuff like calling for the extermination of specific groups or threatening to rape others hardly led to any reaction. [1] Some police departments basically just said nothing is going to happen, others took the statement and then didn't follow up anymore. To my knowledge none of them led to police storming apartments, although a select few initiated prosecution.

[0] https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Pimmelgate-Nach-Durch...

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdm8SG8_v0I

(Both sources in german, can't find any in English)

> Insult charges apply when an individual insults another in public to damage their social reputation.

This is a gift to the rich and powerful to punish and gag whistleblowers and activists.

That's how defamation/libel law has functioned in the UK.

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