Our friends at the Alliance Defending Freedom are back at the coalface again, this time working to protect the right to satire.

The Christian website The Babylon Bee bills itself as “Fake news you can trust” and has been publishing Christian-inspired satire since 2016.

Their work is clearly identifiable as satire and always has been.

Despite the humourous nature of the website, several Babylon Bee articles were found to constitute professional misconduct in the recent Victorian Tribunal judgment against HRLA client Dr Jereth Kok.

And now a law in Hawaii threatens the Bee’s right to free expression and to tell jokes.

In response, the ADF is stepping up to help the Bee to challenge the law and restore the fundamental right of freedom of speech.

The new Hawaiian law is due to come into effect from February 2, 2026 until their state elections and the US midterms in November 2026. According to the ADF:

The broad and vague language of this law means that you could face lawsuits, damages, fines, and, yes, even jail time for posting political memes on social media. These vague terms are simply codewords for censorship and have the effect of chilling speech.

Hawaii has essentially made political memes a crime. We shouldn’t trust the government to decide what is true in our online political debates.

The Bee has sued against censorship in the past, challenging two Californian laws in 2024.

It is clear that the censorship industrial complex of progressive western governments is not about protecting people from “misinformation”. On the contrary, they are simply censoring controversial views they oppose.

For instance, many of Dr Kok’s offending posts were jokes, memes, and satirical articles including a number by The Babylon Bee.

Similarly, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner’s efforts to censor Billboard Chris were an effort to punish speech and censor opinions the secular authorities found problematic.

HRLA will continue to defend against censorship in Australia and we will continue to support the ADF in their similar efforts abroad.