"The three countries [Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, and Kenya] provide evidence of online hate speech and disinformation affecting human rights offline. The evidence is not comprehensive yet clear enough to raise serious concerns. Online gender-based violence is also reported as critical in the
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three countries. In the three countries, national legislation to address harmful content shows some degree of inconsistency in comparison to international standards, notably in relation to the protection of freedom of expression. The reasons for such inconsistency vary among countries. The effective enforcement of legal frameworks is uneven in all three countries. Social and cultural inequalities are often reproduced in government or judicial decisions, and vagueness in legislation opens space for discretionary decisions. Platform companies have offices in Indonesia and Kenya, but not in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the three countries, there is a lack of transparency in how companies allocate the roles of moderation tasks, including the number of different language moderators and their trusted partners and sources. Companies do not process content moderation in some of the main local languages and community standards are not entirely or promptly available in local languages." (Executive summary)
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"The proliferation of hate speech and disinformation on online platforms has serious implications for human rights, trust and safety as per international human rights law and standards. The mutually-reinforcing determinants of the problems are: ‘attention economics’; automated advertising system
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s; external manipulators; company spending priorities; stakeholder knowledge deficits; and flaws in platforms’ policies and in their implementation. How platforms understand and identify harms is insufficiently mapped to human rights standards, and there is a gap in how generic policy elements should deal with local cases, different rights and business models when there are tensions. Enforcement by platforms of their own terms of service to date has grave shortfalls, while attempts to improve outcomes by automating moderation have their limitations. Inequalities in policy and practice abound in relation to different categories of people, countries and languages, while technology advances are raising even more challenges. Problems of ‘solo-regulation’ by individual platforms in content curation and moderation are paralleled by harms associated with unilateral state regulation. Many countries have laws governing content online, but their vagueness fuels arbitrary measures by both authorities and platforms. Hybrid regulatory arrangements can help by elaborating transparency requirements, and setting standards for mandatory human rights impact assessments." (Key messages)
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"This guide for policy-makers developed by the United Nations’ Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect (OSAPG) and UNESCO provides specific strategies and approaches to address hate speech within and through education. Countering harmful, discriminatory and violent narrativ
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es in the form of xenophobia, racism, antisemitism, anti-Muslim hatred and other types of intolerance, whether online or offline, requires interventions at every level of education, in both formal and non-formal settings. This guide offers concrete recommendations, good practices and lessons learned on how to combat hate speech and provide safe and respectful learning environments, as well as the broader goal of fostering inclusive societies." (Back cover)
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"From Ethiopia to Sudan, there has been significant concern about the role of hate speech and incitement on social media to promote offline violence and, at its most extreme, genocide. These questions have become more urgent with the growth of large language models and Artificial Intelli-gence that
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are increasingly shaping online speech and may amplify existing concerns. In this paper, we interrogate the assumptions and myths about the causal link between online speech and its impact on the offline world by evaluating the empirical evidence. Overall, we found that there is limited ev-idence pointing to this direct association and, in line with broader literature on the underlying causes of violence, our review points to longer-term contextual, historical, and economic factors that often drive conflict, particularly in Africa. We conclude by identifying major evidence gaps and highlighting the need for caution when attributing the impact of online hate speech on violence." (Abstract)
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"1. Expansive reach and influence of WhatsApp groups: The study findings indicate that WhatsApp groups have a remarkably wide reach, potentially connecting with three quarters of WhatsApp users in Lebanon. These groups are part of larger networks, which enhances the dissemination of content. Moreove
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r, their cost-effectiveness for advertising, compared to platforms like Facebook, makes them a formidable tool for targeted information dissemination. 2. Dominant themes and regional variation in conversations: The analysis revealed that conversations in the 37 sampled groups revolved mainly around key themes such as livelihood, security, politics, and foreign countries’ involvement in Lebanon. Interestingly, there were regional variations in the content promoted and more specifically in fear-oriented news, reflecting the different concerns prevalent in various areas. 3. Sensationalism, speculation, and fearmongering: WhatsApp groups frequently employ sensationalized language, unverified speculations, and a focus on dramatic events. These practices contribute to an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty among the public, potentially influencing behaviors, including purchasing trends and political opinion-shaping. 4. Mis- and disinformation: The study highlighted the pervasive spread of false or misleading information, particularly during sensitive periods, where it can be used to exploit or manipulate public sentiment. Notable examples include unreliable earthquake predictions and the case of Sheikh Al Rifai’s murder." (Conclusion, page 38)
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"We inquire into different perspectives and patterns of problematizing online hate speech within the social sciences from a systems-theoretical perspective. Our results identify five different research perspectives adopted by studies on the issue: (1) systematic perspectives on problems of operation
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alizing (online) hate speech; (2) intentionalist perspectives on actors and their motives; (3) consequentialist perspectives on victims of online hate speech; (4) perspectives on media affordances, infrastructures, and strategies of online hate speech; and finally, (5) normative perspectives on the consequences of online hate speech. Additionally, we want to propose a functionalist perspective on hate communication and, for this purpose, develop a systems-theoretical and media-sociological framework for analyzing online hate speech. A systems-theoretical perspective connects to a process-oriented paradigm of doing hate speech. Instead of asking what hate speech is, a systems-theoretical framework focuses on how different communicative contextures empirically produce different understandings of hate communication. We will make four research proposals: We will (1) conceptualize hate as hate communication, then proceed to (2) analyze different communicative contextures, (3) develop media archeology of negation and conflict communication, and finally (4) focus on the function of conflict and hate communication for the emergence of (counter-)publics." (Abstract)
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"En un mundo globalizado donde la información fluye, los medios de comunicación tienen un papel esencial en moldear opiniones y actitudes. En El discurso de odio en los medios de Ecuador: percepciones y soluciones, estudiantes del sexto ciclo de Comunicación en la Universidad Politécnica Salesia
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na, sede Cuenca, abordan un tema de gran relevancia en nuestra sociedad actual. Utilizando su formación académica como base enriquecedora, estos jóvenes investigadores exploran el fenómeno del discurso de odio en los medios de comunicación ecuatorianos. A través de estudios de caso y análisis críticos rigurosos, examinan cómo ciertas expresiones mediáticas pueden perpetuar estereotipos dañinos, promover la división y socavar los pilares de una sociedad diversa y plural. Este libro no solo arroja luz sobre los desafíos que enfrenta nuestra sociedad respecto al discurso de odio, sino que también destaca la importancia de una comunicación responsable y ética mediante propuestas para mitigar la misoginia, homofobia, racismo, xenofobia y disablismo en los medios de comunicación en el contexto ecuatoriano." (Descripción de la casa editorial)
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"This book is the result of a conference that could not take place. It is a collection of 26 texts that address and discuss the latest developments in international hate speech research from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. This includes case studies from Brazil, Lebanon, Poland, Nigeria,
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and India, theoretical introductions to the concepts of hate speech, dangerous speech, incivility, toxicity, extreme speech, and dark participation, as well as reflections on methodological challenges such as scraping, annotation, datafication, implicity, explainability, and machine learning. As such, it provides a much-needed forum for cross-national and cross-disciplinary conversations in what is currently a very vibrant field of research." (Back cover)
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"Verschwörungstheoretiker*innen, Antisemit*innen und Rassist*innen haben sich ein Standbein auf TikTok gebaut – das berichten Expert*innen und bildungspolitische Akteur*innen immer wieder. Besonders in Krisenzeiten hat diese Art Content Konjunktur – so etwa während der Corona-Pandamie oder der
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erneuten Eskalation des Nahostkonflikts im Mai 2021. Auch wir als Bildungsstätte Anne Frank beobachten, dass hier nahezu keinerlei Zurückhaltung mehr herrscht: Regelmäßig werden auch unsere Videos mit sexistischen und antisemitischen Kommentaren geflutet [...] TikTok verweist gerne auf die eigenen Community-Richtlinien, die natürlich Hass, Beleidigungen und Mobbing auf der Plattform verbieten; die Plattform wirbt immer wieder damit, wie viele Videos aus dem Verkehr gezogen wurden. Dennoch: Antisemitismus, Rassismus, Sexismus, Queerfeindlichkeit, Ableismus und Verschwörungserzählungen sind auf TikTok omnipräsent. Ohne ein aktives und qualifiziertes Engagement von Influencer*innen, Institutionen und Nutzer*innen ist ihre Bekämpfung unter den aktuellen Bedingungen nicht möglich." (Vorwort, Seite 2-3)
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"Hate Speech ist Alltag, egal ob auf der Straße, im Parlament oder im Netz. Menschen werden beleidigt, entwürdigt und man ruft zu Gewalt auf. Die Folgen sind unübersehbar. Hate Speech ist so zu einem gesellschaftsbedrohenden Phänomen avanciert, befeuert durch politische und soziale Krisen wie di
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e Flüchtlingskrise 2015/16 und die Corona-Pandemie 2020/21. Mit diesem Sammelband möchten wir einen Beitrag zu einer strukturierten Reflexion des Phänomens leisten. Dabei werden sprachliche Indikatoren von Hassrede, die Bedeutung von digitaler Kommunikation für Hass und Hetze sowie öffentliche Kommunikation und Hate Speech in der Praxis diskutiert. Ebenso setzt der Band sich mit möglichen politischen, rechtlichen, journalistischen sowie zivilgesellschaftlichen Handlungsoptionen auseinander. Einen besonderen Fokus legen wir dabei auf die journalistische Bearbeitung und digitale Verbreitung von Hate Speech." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Es ist erstaunlich, dass der römisch-katholische Radio-Priester Charles Coughlin – Vertreter der amerikanischen Religiösen Rechten, Antikommunist, Antisemit, Demagoge und Zeitzeuge der ersten America First-Bewegung – hierzulande so gut wie unbekannt ist. Ebenso erstaunlich ist, dass er bis vo
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r kurzem in den USA, einem Land, in dem allsonntäglich Millionen Menschen seinen politischen Predigten lauschten, nahezu vollständig in Vergessenheit geraten war. Coughlins Geschichte weist viele Aspekte auf, die auch gegenwärtig in Gesellschaft und Politik, nicht nur in den USA, eine Rolle spielen: die Nutzung neuer Medien für die Verbreitung von alternativen Fakten und Verschwörungstheorien, der Erfolg populistischer Versprechungen, Narzissmus, die Konfrontation von Demagogie und wehrhafter Demokratie. Der Politikwissenschaftler Helmut Klumpjan schildert das politisch-religiöse Leben Father Coughlins, erklärt den historischen und politischen Kontext seiner Zeit (1891–1979) und misst zuletzt den Wegbereiter des Hate Radio an seinem eigenen Idol: Wie gelingt es einem Menschen, der sich das Liebes-Motto einer christlichen Heiligen auf die Fahne geschrieben hat, dennoch Hass zu verbreiten?" (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Beginning in August 2017, the Myanmar security forces undertook a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine State. A UN investigation found that the role of Facebook in the violence was “significant”. This report is based on an in-depth investi
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gation into Meta (formerly Facebook)’s role in the serious human rights violations perpetrated against the Rohingya. It reveals that in the months and years leading up to the 2017 atrocities, the Facebook platform became an echo chamber of virulent anti-Rohingya content in Myanmar. Meta’s algorithms proactively amplified and promoted content which incited violence, hatred, and discrimination against the Rohingya – pouring fuel on the fire of long-standing discrimination and substantially increasing the risk of an outbreak of mass violence. Despite its partial acknowledgement that it played a role in the 2017 violence against the Rohingya, Meta has to date failed to provide an effective remedy to affected Rohingya communities. However, Amnesty International’s systematic legal analysis of Meta’s role in the atrocities perpetrated against the Rohingya leaves little room for doubt: Meta substantially contributed to adverse human rights impacts suffered by the Rohingya and has a responsibility to provide survivors with an effective remedy." (Back cover)
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"This chapter explores digital drivers of conflict. We examine how technologies are affecting conflict dynamics and what peacebuilders can do to mitigate these effects. We argue that because digital technologies are fundamentally altering the human experience, they are by extension fundamentally alt
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ering conflicts. We propose a framework for understanding the impact of technology on conflict, and for categorising different types of peacebuilding interventions. Together, these interventions contribute to the emerging field of digital peacebuilding." (Abstract)
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"Memory and Erasure brings together young and established Zimbabwean scholars and activists who explore with fresh eyes the failure to overcome the terrible legacies of this period. At its heart is recognition that justice cannot be achieved while Gukurahundi’s perpetrators remain in power and sti
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ll seek to control the memory of that period. The chapters explore the failures of peacebuilding, finding only a negative peace, the weighty obstacle to reform of the ‘securocratic state’, and the weaknesses of transitional justice efforts and institutions, from the late 1980s to the present. They focus on ‘linguistic genocide’, noting not only the use of linguistic difference to violently divide and target during Gukurahundi, but the use of Gukurahundi as metaphor for a structural violence that has carried on in the daily life of Ndebele speakers into the present. A highly original chapter focuses on the layered and gendered silences, powerfully rooted in shame and humiliation, that continue to shroud victims of sexual violence. The book ends with an important chapter on popular efforts at making counter-memory, through public lectures, the subversion of official celebrations, the reclaiming of statues, and above all an ongoing battle over the memorialisation of Bhalagwe camp, where thousands of people were detained, tortured and killed by state agents. This is a lonely, dangerous struggle, but it also underlines the ultimate failure of the party-state’s ‘anti-memory’. This book engages with wide-ranging theoretical work on transitional justice and memory, and makes revealing comparisons with cases from the former Yugoslavia to Namibia and South Africa." (Publisher description)
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"Quality media are indispensable. People must be able to form opinions competently. They must also be free to express their views. At the same time, there must be limits to slander, fake-news propaganda and the spreading of conspiracy theories. The internet is proving to be ambivalent. On the one ha
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nd, some kinds of online exchange are excellent – not least, as some news websites are standing up to governments with authoritarian tendencies. On the other hand, the under-regulated cyber sphere gives too much scope for spreading lies and disinformation." (Page 3)
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"Delving into the meanings, implications, contexts and effects of extreme speech and gated communities in the media landscape, the chapters analyse misleading metaphors and rhetoric via focused case studies to understand how we can overcome the risks and threats stemming from the past decade's defin
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ing communicative phenomena. The book brings together an international team of experts, enabling a broad, multidisciplinary approach that examines hate speech, dislike, polarization and enclave deliberation as cross axes that influence offline and digital conversations." (Publisher description)
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