sedition
n.the act of encouraging people to rebel against the government or the law. It usually involves using words or writing to start a protest or a fight against those in power.
n.conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch. Often involves the dissemination of materials intended to provoke civil disorder or subvert the established legal order.
“The journalist was arrested and charged with sedition.”
“The government argued that the protest leader's speech crossed the line from free expression into outright sedition.”
“Legal scholars often debate the fine distinction between legitimate political dissent and sedition, particularly when a speaker's rhetoric explicitly calls for the forceful overthrow of democratic institutions.”
Commonly used in legal and political contexts; often appears as the object of verbs like 'incite', 'charge with', or 'commit'.
“On 15 July, when the annual Hong Kong Book Fair opened, national security police searched two more independent bookshops, Greenfield Bookstore and Have a Nice Stay, arresting five people for sedition.”
From Old French sedicion, from Latin sēditiō (“sedition, discord”), from sēd- (“apart”) (an alternative form of sē-) + itiō (“going”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.