Controversy in the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment erupted as a new law against hate speech came into force on Monday. With broad powers that could make religious views or even jokes criminal offenses, the law has sparked debate.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act makes it an offense to stir up hatred with threatening or abusive behavior on the basis of characteristics including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and transgender identity. Racial hatred was already banned under a law dating from 1986.

The maximum sentence is seven years in prison. The legislation does not specifically ban hatred against women. The Scottish government says that will be tackled by a separate forthcoming law against misogyny.

Scottish Minister for Victims and Community Safety Siobhian Brown said the new law would help build “safer communities that live free from hatred and prejudice.”

The new law warns that people can be prosecuted for sharing offensive rhetoric across multiple media platforms, which includes “displaying, publishing or distributing the material e.g. on a sign; on the internet through websites, blogs, podcasts, social media etc., either directly, or by forwarding or repeating material that originates from a third party; through printed media such as magazine publications or leaflets, etc. Giving, sending, showing or playing the material to another person e.g. through online streaming, by email, playing a video, through public performance of a play, etc.”

Critics say that the new law is an infringement upon the right of Scottish citizens to speak freely. “The bill would force police to investigate those who misgender someone online,” said Thomas Corbett-Dillon, a former adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rawlings blasted the law on a social media post on (formerly Twitter) stating “In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls,”

Rowling continued: “For several years now, Scottish women have been pressured by their government and members of the police force to deny the evidence of their eyes and ears, repudiate biological facts and embrace a neo-religious concept of gender that is unprovable and untestable. The re-definition of ‘woman’ to include every man who declares himself one has already had serious consequences for women’s and girls’ rights and safety in Scotland, with the strongest impact felt, as ever, by the most vulnerable, including female prisoners and rape survivors.”

“I’m currently out of the country, but if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offense under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,” she concluded.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, also spoke out against the law stating, “We should not be criminalising people saying common sense things about biological sex, clearly that isn’t right…We have a proud tradition of free speech.”

The question remains regarding how far the Scottish government will go in enforcing this new law. Yet another chilling example of governments’ increasing efforts erode fundamental liberties under the guise of “hate speech”.