"Satan, please, buy my soul in exchange for permission to bash children's heads against the wall... if I catch a child, I'd freeze and eat its flesh, chop its bones in place of firewood," sings a twenty-one year old calling himself Whydotas in an amateur YouTube video. In the video description, the author asks listeners to not take these words seriously — it's just black humor.

The police, however, ignored Whydotas's request and launched a pre-trial investigation regarding hate speech against children. The case has no precedent in Lithuania.

Famous support

At the conclusion of summary proceedings, Whydotas and his brother (who filmed the video) were sentenced and fined for "creating, making and holding in their possession the song 'Satan, Please,' the contents of which incite violence against and physical violent treatment of children, ridicule, express contempt for and encourage hatred against them."

Following the conviction, a whole host of local celebrities — musicians, directors, show business representatives and the like — came to the defense of the two men. One of the most popular stand-up comedians of the new generation commented that "what's happening right now is a crime against freedom of speech" and promised to help with the fine.

The story doesn't end here. The defendants disagreed with the court's decision and applied for a full trial. They claim that they cannot be punished for artistic self-expression even when somebody finds this particular brand of humor provocative, stupid or unfunny.

Children

On the other hand, black humor is also capable of inciting hatred, violence or physical violent treatment. It looks like the court will have to deal with some interesting legal issues, with one of them being whether children can be held to constitute a group that the law prohibits incitement to hatred against as a result of their social status.

The prosecution relied on these grounds when the case was examined for the first time, but this is somewhat suspect as the Law on Equal Opportunities defines "social status" as a person's financial or economic situation. The criminal code of Lithuania does not prohibit the incitement of hatred against a group of people based on their age.

Lightning-fast reactions

Commenting on the case, a representative of the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics recalled that limits to self-expression exist even in art and that liability attaches itself to not only the people who create the work, but also those who participate in its distribution.

These days, he says, similar works are subject to lightning-fast reactions due to the rapid dissemination of information, since the work is able to reach a greater number of people much faster through the Internet.

In fact, Whydotas has roughly 120,000 followers on Facebook alone, with more than 120,000 following him on YouTube and 32,000 on Instagram. In a country with a population of 3 million, he finds himself at the top of the list of the most popular social media personalities. His popularity grew even more as a result of "Satan, Please."

"These days, children are so annoying, but anyways, their spines are weak and brittle, do not be afraid to smack a child, be a real man... I ask you all to rise against children, chop off their nails, drive them to the grave, they'll think it's a nightmare, but once they fall asleep, they'll never wake again," goes the song, remains available to the public on YouTube. Whydotas took the video down after the launch of the pre-trial investigation, but put it back up after massive support from his fans. Currently, the video has over 2 million views.