Hate speech poisons societies and fuels conflicts
Illegal Hate speech is defined in EU law as the public incitement to violence or hatred on the basis of certain characteristics, including colour, religion, descent and national or ethnic origin. It undermines the fundamental rights and values upon which democratic societies are founded and causes harm not only to individual victims but also to society at large. Moreover, hate speech impedes pluralism and diversity by leading to polarisation and negative effects on public debate and democratic life.
“Over the last year, with lockdowns and the coronavirus pandemic, hate speech and extremist ideologies have increasingly been spreading on the Internet.”
- European Commission Statement on the European Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism 2022
Language plays a fundamental role in the creation of shared knowledge and it can be used to lay the basis for aggression against targeted groups. It incites violence, paves the road for, and enables atrocities.
In the most recent context of Russia’s continuing war of aggression against Ukraine, we have seen how pro-Kremlin rhetoric is systematically using dehumanizing, inflammatory and vilifying language to portray Ukrainians as Nazis and frame Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine as a ‘special military operation’.
The EU has been working on several fronts to impede the expansion of hate speech, namely through the EUvsDisinfo project, established to better forecast, address, and respond to the Russian Federation’s ongoing disinformation campaigns affecting the European Union, its Member States, and countries in the shared neighbourhood.
But hate speech is not only constrained to opposing different nations. Disunity can be seeded within the same society. For example in Belarus, every Sunday, state-controlled media features a section called the ‘Order of Judas’. The section singles out and targets the so-called Belarusians “regime traitors” - the list is long and includes Belarusian opposition leaders, activists as well as social media influencers, singers and artists, journalists and media personalities, former regime officials and diplomats
Working with social networks
Online social networks are often the hub for hateful language to develop and disseminate. The EU is working with Internet companies to counter hate speech and radicalisation online. In May 2016, the Commission agreed with Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube on a ‘Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online’. And two years after, Instagram, Snapchat and Dailymotion took part in the Code of Conduct. Jeuxvideo.com in January 2019, and TikTok joined in September 2020. On 25 June 2021, LinkedIn also announced its participation in the Code of Conduct. On Thursday, 16 June DG CNECT published the renewed version of the Code of Conduct, further strengthening the collaboration with the platforms, the EU institutions, fact-checking community, Civil Society Organizations and academia. It also established a permanent Taskforce to address disinformation, hate speech and radicalization online.
In multiple forums, the EU is acting to counter hate speech, acknowledging it as an issue that has a concrete impact on individuals and on the fabric of our societies. In December last year, the European Commission adopted a Communication to extend the current list of EU crimes to hate crimes and hate speech. Additionally, the adoption of strategies for the protection of minorities, such as EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life (2021-2030), anti-Muslim hatred or anti-gypsyism, have also been sensitive to the topic of hate speech and on the guidance to policies to address the issue more efficiently.
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