Civil Society as a Means against Hate Speech

2021 ◽  
pp. 175-188
Author(s):  
Karsten Weber
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Hate Speech

scholarly journals Social Media, Violence and the Law: ’Objectionable Material’ and the Changing Countours of Hate Speech Regulation in India

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siddharth Narrain
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Media Violence ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Police Personnel ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
Trigger Mechanisms ◽  
Prior Restraint

With the advent of the internet and increasing circulation of hate speech, and material that has been linked to public order disturbances, there has been a shift in the legal discourse around hate speech. What has emerged, especially post the striking down of section 66A of the Information Technology Act, are categories such as ‘objectionable’, ‘provocative’ content. The focus has shifted from the content itself, what it says, and the intention of the author, to being able to pre-empt the circulation of such material. Law is increasingly invoked to prevent speech (through prior restraint) rather than post facto investigation and prosecutions. This in turn has given rise to a range of institutional mechanisms such as monitoring labs that are now part of policing practice. Additionally, civil society organizations are now collaborating with police to help trigger mechanisms to take content off internet platforms. Increasingly it is through keywords and algorithmic searches that the category of hate speech has been defined rather than traditional legal doctrine. In the words of Lawrence Lessig, code plays the role of law, and the architecture of the internet becomes policy. This paper will examine the issues outlined above relying heavily on a series of interviews with lawyers, policy analysts, journalists, academics, civil society activists, and police personnel conducted in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune.

scholarly journals Don’t feed the trolls?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caryn Coatney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
The United States ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Professional Boundaries ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Interpretive Communities

This study applies the concepts of interpretive communities and conversational interactions to show how investigative journalists initiated a relatively new method of reporting and generated support among their colleagues for becoming anti-Nazi activists and troll hunters. It draws on a sample of journalistic reporting and related media items to examine investigative reporters’ self-reflexive acts and the responses of journalism communities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States from 2015 to 2020. Investigative journalists initiated open conversations to show that they were enthusiastic activists in retweeting, confronting and quoting neo-Nazi trolling by interviewing the perpetrators. Other journalism communities signified they were pursuing activist-like agendas as they magnified this work through informal networks, social media and news commentaries. Journalists reconsidered their professional boundaries to allow for cooperative conversations about their experiences in a fresh effort to denounce hate speech and begin collective initiatives to enhance social cohesion in civil society.

Harming Women with Words: The Failure of Australian Law to Prohibit Gendered Hate Speech

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya D'Souza ◽  
Laura Griffin ◽  
Nicole Shackleton ◽  
Danielle Walt
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

In Australia, gendered hate speech against women is so pervasive and insidious that it is a normalised feature of everyday public discourse. It is often aimed at silencing women, and hindering their ability to participate effectively in civil society. As governmental bodies have recognised, sexist and misogynist language perpetuates gender-based violence by contributing to strict gender norms and constructing women as legitimate objects of hostility. Thus, gendered hate speech, like other forms of hate speech, produces a range of harms which ripple out beyond the targeted individual. The harmful nature of vilification is recognised by the various Australian laws which prohibit or address other forms of hate speech. But as we map out in this article, gendered hate speech is glaringly absent from most of this legislation. We argue that by failing to address gendered hate speech, Australian law permits the marginalisation of women and girls, and actively exacerbates their vulnerability to exclusion and gender-based harm.

scholarly journals Combating Sexist Hate Speech The Work of the Council of Europe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Cangemi
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Council Of Europe

This paper presents the Council of Europe current work on sexist hate speech and sexism. After an overview on sexist hate speech, its different forms, the factors contributing to it and the connection between sexist hate speech and freedom of expression, this contribution presents relevant Council of Europe standards and activities (including the new Committee of Ministers Recommendation on preventing and combating sexism), extracting from them the key elements that should guide governments, media, civil society and other relevant stakeholders in their action against sexism. A ‘checklist’ of indicators and actions to eliminate sexist hate speech is presented as a conclusion.

scholarly journals Alt_Right White Lite: Trolling, Hate Speech and Cyber Racism on Social Media

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Henry Jakubowicz
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Global Level ◽  
State Economy ◽  
Media Power ◽  
The Impact

The rapid growth of race hate speech on the Internet seems to have overwhelmed the capacity of states, corporations or civil society to limit its spread and impact. Yet by understanding how the political economy of the Internet facilitates racism it is possible to chart strategies that might push back on its negative social effects. Only by involving the state, economy and civil society at both the global level, and locally, can such a process begin to develop an effective ‘civilising’ dynamic. However neo-liberalism and democratic license may find such an exercise ultimately overwhelmingly challenging, especially if the fundamental logical drivers that underpin the business model of the Internet cannot be transformed. This article charts the most recent rise and confusion of the Internet under the impact of the Alt-Right and other racist groups, focusing on an Australian example that demonstrates the way in which a group could manipulate the contradictions of the Internet with some success. Using an analytical model developed to understand the political economy and sociology of mass media power in the later stages of modernity, before the Internet, the author offers a series of proposals on how to address racism on the Internet.

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