Man who taught dog Nazi salute hosted at EU

(JTA) — European Parliament lawmakers from Britain’s nationalist UKIP party hosted at a conference on free speech online a member who taught a dog to give the Nazi salute when told “gas the Jews.”

Mark Meechan, who in April was fined to the tune of approximately $1,000 for filming the stunt and posting it online, attended and spoke at the UKIP-organized event in Strasbourg, France Monday, The Scotsman reported. David Coburn, one of UKIP’s 24 lawmakers at the European Parliament, announced that Meechan has joined UKIP, saying that he and others like him “are the future” and are “going to take us in a new direction.”

In his speech, Meechan, 30, decried the employment by internet giants of “unseen algorithms analyzing content, either approving of disapproving it before it can go online, open to so much abuse that it’s diabolical.” Policing of free speech online, he said, “can lead to Fascism.”