Article 510 Spanish Criminal Code: Hate speech and incitement

1. The following shall be punished with a penalty of imprisonment of one to four years and a fine of six to twelve months:

a) Those who publicly foster, promote or incite, directly or indirectly, hatred, hostility, discrimination or violence against a group, a part of it or against a determinate person by reason of belonging to it, for racist, antisemitic or anti Roma motives, or for others relating to ideology, religion or beliefs, family situation, the belonging of its members to an ethnic group, race or nation, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or identity, for reasons of gender, aporophobia, illness or disability.

b) Those who produce, prepare, possess for the purpose of distribution, facilitate to third parties access to, distribute, disseminate or sell writings or any other kind of material or media which by their content are apt to foster, promote or incite, directly or indirectly, hatred, hostility, discrimination or violence against a group, a part of it, or against a determinate person by reason of belonging to it, for racist, antisemitic or anti Roma motives, or for others relating to ideology, religion or beliefs, family situation, the belonging of its members to an ethnic group, race or nation, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or identity, for reasons of gender, aporophobia, illness or disability.

c) Those who publicly deny, grossly trivialise or glorify the offences of genocide, crimes against humanity or offences against persons and property protected in the event of armed conflict, or glorify their perpetrators, where they have been committed against a group or a part of it, or against a determinate person by reason of belonging to it, for racist, antisemitic or anti Roma motives, or for others relating to ideology, religion or beliefs, family situation or the belonging of its members to an ethnic group, race or nation, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or identity, for reasons of gender, aporophobia, illness or disability, where a climate of violence, hostility, hatred or discrimination against them is thereby promoted or favoured.

2. The following shall be punished with a penalty of imprisonment of six months to two years and a fine of six to twelve months:

a) Those who impair the dignity of persons by acts involving humiliation, contempt or discredit of one of the groups referred to in the preceding paragraph, or of a part of them, or of any determinate person by reason of belonging to them, for racist, antisemitic or anti Roma motives, or for others relating to ideology, religion or beliefs, family situation, the belonging of its members to an ethnic group, race or nation, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or identity, for reasons of gender, aporophobia, illness or disability, or who produce, prepare, possess for the purpose of distribution, facilitate to third parties access to, distribute, disseminate or sell writings or any other kind of material or media which by their content are apt to impair the dignity of persons by representing a serious humiliation, contempt or discredit of one of the groups mentioned, of a part of them, or of any determinate person by reason of belonging to them.

b) Those who glorify or justify, by any means of public expression or dissemination, the offences which have been committed against a group, a part of it, or against a determinate person by reason of belonging to it for racist, antisemitic or anti Roma motives, or for others relating to ideology, religion or beliefs, family situation, the belonging of its members to an ethnic group, race or nation, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or identity, for reasons of gender, aporophobia, illness or disability, or those who have taken part in their execution.

The acts shall be punished with a penalty of one to four years of imprisonment and a fine of six to twelve months where a climate of violence, hostility, hatred or discrimination against the said groups is thereby promoted or favoured.

3. The penalties provided for in the preceding paragraphs shall be imposed in their upper half where the acts have been carried out through a medium of social communication, by means of the internet or through the use of information technologies, in such a way that they became accessible to a large number of persons.

4. Where the acts, in the light of their circumstances, are apt to disturb public peace or to create a serious feeling of insecurity or fear among the members of the group, the penalty shall be imposed in its upper half, and it may be raised to the next higher degree.

5. In all cases, there shall also be imposed the penalty of special disqualification from an educational profession or trade, in the fields of teaching, sport and leisure, for a term exceeding by between three and ten years the duration of the custodial penalty imposed, where appropriate, in the judgment, having regard proportionately to the seriousness of the offence, to the number of offences committed and to the circumstances attending the offender.

6. The judge or court shall order the destruction, deletion or rendering unusable of the books, files, documents, articles and any kind of medium which is the object of the offences referred to in the preceding paragraphs or by means of which they were committed. Where the offence was committed through information and communication technologies, the withdrawal of the content shall be ordered.

In cases in which, through an internet access portal or an information society service, the content referred to in the preceding paragraph is disseminated exclusively or predominantly, the blocking of access to it or the interruption of the provision of that service shall be ordered.

Working translation prepared by Société Juridique from the consolidated Spanish text published by the Official State Gazette. It has no official status: the only authoritative version is the Spanish original, available at the Official State Gazette and reproduced verbatim in our Spanish-language entry for this provision. Source: Organic Law 10/1995 of 23 November, the Spanish Criminal Code.