Criminal speech is a legal concept that identifies certain kinds of speech as a crime. The concept is somewhat at odds with freedom of speech in its broadest sense, within the broader freedom of expression, and asserts certain limitations on such freedom.
Concepts like criticism of government and criticism of royalty are controversial. Other concepts limiting certain kinds of speech are not, such as that which prohibits shouting fire in a crowded theater (as a practical joke, and not as a warning), as such speech has the potential to cause harm.
Laws vary by country according with the legal principles that such country adheres to. Most speech is unregulated, and does not violate law. In reference to authoritarian governments which assert serious controls, such controls are commonly called suppression of dissent. In democracies, the concept of hate speech has emerged in recent years, to counteract the political and social influence of hate groups.
Famous quotes containing the words criminal and/or speech:
“The husbands of very beautiful women belong to the criminal classes.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Three words that still have meaning, that I think we can apply to all professional writing, are discovery, originality, invention. The professional writer discovers some aspect of the world and invents out of the speech of his time some particularly apt and original way of putting it down on paper.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)