Markus Meechan, 30, from North Lanarkshire, Scotland, also known as "Count Dankula", one of my favourite youtubers, who describes himself as a "Professional Shitposter. Going to jail for a joke. Anti-PC. Anti-SNP. Pro Free Speech. Edgi Boi. Scottish Nationalist." is facing jail after he was convicted of a hate crime for uploading a video of him teaching his girlfriend’s pug to give a Nazi "Sieg Hail" salute and respond excitedly to the phrase "gas the Jews."
He went viral in 2016 after he posted a video on YouTube entitled "M8 yer dugs a Nazi", that reached over 3.000.000 views, where he also explains he wanted to turn his girlfriend's pug, Buddha, into the "least cute thing I could think of".
Following outcry over the video, Meechan was arrested and charged with suspicion of a hate crime and an alleged breach of the electronic communications act.
Meechan denied the allegations, explaining that he was not anti-Semitic, teaching the dog to act like a Nazi being nothing more than a joke intended to upset his girlfriend.
“I don’t actually hate Jewish people and the video was just an insight into the darker side of my humour, a prank to annoy my girlfriend and that I did not intend for people, other than people who knew my comedy, to see the video,” he said, reports the Jewish Chronicle.
Even if he attracted support during his trial from British Jewish celebrities and prominent members of the British far-right, who felt his case highlighted an issue of free speech, Count Dankula has just been convicted and found guilty for his "Nazi Pug" joke. He's being sentenced soon and could very well be sent to prison FOR A JOKE, LITERALLY.
This shit happens days after Lauren Southern, a conservative journalist, was banned from UK and deported for "distribution of racist material in Luton" after distributing a leaflet that stated “Allah is gay” (this is not a racist statement).
UK is starting to sound like a bad joke to me. I just wish that people will wake up and see what those things really mean and how much they affect the freedom of speech.
