freedom-of-speech
What is the shortest illegal statement?
<p>In the US, it is a criminal offense to perform the statement &quot;I want to kill the president&quot;. However, to simply quote it, as I just did, is permissible; the statement is by itself not illegal.</p>
<p>In the US, is is also a criminal offense to quote a copyrighted work in public, unless this is covered by fair use laws and so on. The following computer code would violate the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA, had I not redacted a line (the horror!):</p>
<pre><code>#define m(i)(x[i]^s[i+84])&lt;&lt;
unsigned char x[5],y,s[2048];main(n){for(read(0,x,5);read(0,s,n=2048);write(1,s
,n))if(s[y=s[13]%8+20]/16%4==1){int i=m(1)17^256+m(0)8,k=m(2)0,j=m(4)17^m(3)9^k
[redacted]
;c=c&gt;y)c+=y=i^i/8^i&gt;&gt;4^i&gt;&gt;12,i=i&gt;&gt;8^y&lt;&lt;17,a^=a&gt;&gt;14,y=a^a*8^a&lt;&lt;6,a=a&gt;&gt;8^y&lt;&lt;9,k=s
[j],k=&quot;7Wo~'G_\216&quot;[k&amp;7]+2^&quot;cr3sfw6v;*k+&gt;/n.&quot;[k&gt;&gt;4]*2^k*257/8,s[j]=k^(k&amp;k*2&amp;34)
*6^c+~y;}}
</code></pre>
<p>In New Zealand and Australia, it is, regardless of context, a criminal offense to post or possess the &quot;The Great Replacement&quot; manifesto, which is 74 pages long. This applies regardless of context; it is not permitted to quote it in full, even if you are not performing it. However, short fragments are fine.</p>
<p><em>What is the shortest statement that is, unto itself, a crime to communicate in any OECD country, use-mention distinction notwithstanding?</em></p>

<h1>The &quot;Hitlergruß&quot;</h1>
<p>In <a href="/questions/tagged/germany" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="germany-container">germany</a>, statements and even gestures that are identified with the nazi ideology are a criminal offence under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_section_86a" rel="nofollow noreferrer">StGB §86a</a> (Dissemination of Means of Propaganda of Unconstitutional Organizations) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksverhetzung" rel="nofollow noreferrer">StGB $130</a> (Volksverhetzung), leaving a gap only for art, science, research or teaching. This makes the &quot;Hitlergruß&quot; <strong>with or without</strong> the accompanied statements of &quot;Heil&quot;,  &quot;Sieg Heil&quot; or &quot;Heil Hitler&quot; an offense that can end you in prison unless you can point to one of the allowed exceptions: up to three years for the dissemination of means of propaganda and at least three months but at max 5 years for Volksverhetzung, especially §130 (3) &amp; (4), the general sentence frame thus would be three months to three years, unless other factors allow for more - the typical sentence is 6 months or a quite hefty fine (some have been known to be 5000 €)</p>
<p><a href="/questions/tagged/austria" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;austria&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;austria&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="austria-container">austria</a> bans the same gesture and sentences via <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbotsgesetz_1947" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Verbotsgesetz §3g</a> as <em>promoting the national socialist ideology through means that are not in §3a-f</em> (which span more or less trying to keep the nazi party alive and violent crimes) and punishes it with (theoretically) <strong>up to 10 years</strong> and for extreme cases double that.</p>
<p>In <a href="/questions/tagged/switzerland" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;switzerland&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;switzerland&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="switzerland-container">switzerland</a>, the gesture is a hate crime if you promote the nazi ideology with it. <a href="/questions/tagged/slovakia" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;slovakia&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;slovakia&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="slovakia-container">slovakia</a> as well es the <a href="/questions/tagged/czech-republic" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;czech-republic&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;czech-republic&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="czech-republic-container">czech-republic</a> also deem this gesture, with or without the words, a criminal offence (up to 5 years in both parts of former <a href="/questions/tagged/czechoslovakia" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;czechoslovakia&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;czechoslovakia&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="czechoslovakia-container">czechoslovakia</a>), <a href="/questions/tagged/sweden" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;sweden&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;sweden&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="sweden-container">sweden</a> deems it a hate crime (see <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150723044313/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com//world/europe/Countries-where-Nazi-salute-is-illegal/articleshow/48147552.cms" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>) and <a href="/questions/tagged/italy" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;italy&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;italy&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="italy-container">italy</a> deems it the same <a href="https://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2018/02/20/news/saluto_fascista_per_la_cassazione_non_e_reato_se_commemorativo-189320383/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">if associated with the Italian Fascist Party</a>. Several other jurisdictions, including in the <a href="/questions/tagged/united-states" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="united-states-container">united-states</a>, do recognize that performing this form of &quot;speech&quot; can be either a hate crime or an offence against public order of some sort.</p>
<p>This makes the <strong>gesture</strong> of &quot;extending the right arm to neck height and then straightening the hand so that it is parallel to the arm&quot; (and possibly using the 4, 8 or 10 letters together with it) the shortest illegal statement - which atop that is possibly the single statement that is also illegal in the most jurisdictions worldwide and not a true threat.</p>

<p>In swedish law, with a clear recipient &quot;dö!&quot;, i e die with an exclamation mark making it an imperative, it could be seen as an unlawful threat. Three characters, though how it works in other countries I do not know.</p>

<p>It's unclear whether you intended to include body gestures as &quot;statements&quot; (how do you measure the length of a gesture). The length of the Hitlergruß is a little under a yard, whereas the middle finger, extended to a judge, is even shorter (a couple of inches) and will result in some punishment for contempt of court. Since it seems that we can depend on context to make a statement illegal, the word &quot;no&quot; is illegal when uttered under penalty of perjury, and the speaker knows that the true answer is &quot;yes&quot;. There are innumerable single-letter statements which would be similarly perjurious, such as a knowingly false answer to the question &quot;What letter was engraved on defendant's ring&quot;.</p>
