Online hate speech

Hate speech The concept of hate speech touches on the clash of freedom of expression and individual, collective, and minority rights, as well as concepts of dignity, liberty, and equality. It is not easily defined but can be recognized by its function. Characteristics of online hate speech The proliferation of hate speech online, observed by the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues poses a new set of challenges. Both social networking platforms and organizations created to combat hate speech have recognized that hateful messages disseminated online are increasingly common and have elicited unprecedented attention to develop adequate responses. According to HateBase, a web-based application that collects instances of hate speech online worldwide, the majority of cases of hate speech target individuals based on ethnicity and nationality, but incitements to hatred focusing on religion and social class have also been on the rise. While hate speech online is not intrinsically different from similar expressions found offline, there are peculiar challenges unique to online content and its regulation. Those challenges related to its permanence, itinerancy, anonymity and complex cross-jurisdictional character. Permanence Hate speech can stay online for a long time in different formats across multiple platforms, which can be linked repeatedly. As Andre Oboler, the CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute, has noted, "The longer the content stays available, the more damage it can inflict on the victims and empower the perpetrators. If you remove the content at an early stage you can limit the exposure. This is just like cleaning litter, it doesn't stop people from littering but if you do not take care of the problem it just piles up and further exacerbates." Twitter's conversations organized around trending topics may facilitate the quick and wide spreading of hateful messages, but they also offer the opportunity for influential speakers to shun messages and possibly end popular threads inciting violence. Facebook, on the contrary, may allow multiple threads to continue in parallel and go unnoticed; creating longer lasting spaces that offend, discriminate, and ridicule certain individuals and groups. As Drew Boyd, Director of Operations at The Sentinel Project, has stated, "the Internet grants individuals the ability to say horrific things because they think they will not be discovered. This is what makes online hate speech so unique, because people feel much more comfortable speaking hate as opposed to real life when they have to deal with the consequences of what they say." China and South Korea enforce real-name policies for social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Quora have sought to activate a real-name system to have more control on online hate speech. Such measures have been deeply contested as they are seen to violate the right to privacy and its intersection with free expression. Many instances of online hate speech are posted by Internet "trolls", which are typically pseudonymous users who post shocking, vulgar, and overall untrue content that is explicitly intended to trigger a negative reaction, though may also be intended to influence or recruit the reader to their beliefs, if they share the same opinion. Social media has also provided a platform for radical and extremist political or religious groups to form, network, and collaborate to spread their messages of anti-establishment and anti-political correctness, and promote beliefs and ideologies that are racist, anti-feminist, homophobic, transphobic, etc. Fully-anonymous online communication is rare, as it requires the user to employ highly technical measures to ensure that they cannot be easily identified. Unlike the dissemination of hate speech through conventional channels, victims of online hate speech may face difficulties knowing to whom they should turn to help, as the platform, their local law enforcement, and the local law enforcement of the person or people using hate speech, may all feel as though the issue does not fall into their jurisdiction, even when hate speech policies and laws are in place. Nongovernmental organizations and lobby groups have been raising awareness and encourage different stakeholders to take action. However, AI may not always be an effective way of monitoring hate speech, since the systems lack the judgment skills that humans have. For example, a user might post or comment something that classifies as hate speech, or violates community guidelines, but if the target word is misspelled, or some letters are replaced with symbols, the AI systems will not recognize it. This weakness has led to the proliferation of attempts to circumvent censorship algorithms using deliberate misspellings, such as the use of "vachscenes" instead of "vaccines" by Vaccine hesitant persons during COVID-19. Therefore, humans still have to monitor the AI systems that monitor hate speech; a common problem in AI technology which is referred to as "Automation's Last Mile.", meaning the last 10% or 1% of the job is the hardest to complete. == Frameworks ==

Stormfront Precedent In the aftermath of 2014's Islamic terrorism incidents, calls for more restrictive or intrusive measures to contain the Internet's potential to spread hate and violence are common, as if the links between online and offline violence were well known. On the contrary, as the following example indicates, appearances may often be deceiving. Stormfront is considered the first "hate website." Launched in March 1995 by a former Ku Klux Klan leader, it quickly became a popular space for discussing ideas related to Neo-Nazism, White nationalism and White separatism, first in the United States of America and then globally. The forum hosts calls for a racial holy war and incitement to use violence to resist immigration. The few studies that have explored the identities of Stormfront actually depict a more complex picture. Rather than seeing it as a space for coordinating actions. Well-known extreme right activists have accused the forum to be just a gathering for "keyboard warriors." One of them for example, as reported by De Koster and Houtman, stated, "I have read quite a few pieces around the forum, and it strikes me that a great fuss is made, whereas little happens. The section activism/politics itself is plainly ridiculous. [...] Not to mention the assemblies where just four people turn up." Even more revealing are some of the responses to these accusations provided by regular members of the website. As one of them argued, "Surely, I am entitled to have an opinion without actively carrying it out. [...] I do not attend demonstrations and I neither join a political party. If this makes me a keyboard warrior, that is all right. I feel good this way. [...] I am not ashamed of it." International Principles Hate speech is not explicitly mentioned in many international human rights documents and treaties, but it is indirectly called upon by some of the principles related to human dignity and freedom of expression. For example, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was drafted as a response to the atrocities of the World War II, contains the right to equal protection under the law in Article 7, which proclaims that: "All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination." The UDHR also states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes "freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." provides for the right to freedom of expression. This sets out the right, and it also includes general strictures to which any limitation of the right must conform in order to be legitimate. Article 19 is followed by Article 20 that expressly limits freedom of expression in cases of "advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence." The decision to include this provision, which can be characterized as embodying a particular conceptualization of hate speech, has been deeply contested. The Human Rights Committee, the United Nations body created by the ICCPR to oversee its implementation, cognizant of the tension, has sought to stress that Article 20 is fully compatible with the right to freedom of expression. In the ICCPR, the right to freedom of expression is not an absolute right. It can legitimately be limited by states under restricted circumstances: "3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary: (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; (b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals." Between Article 19 (3) and Article 20, there is a distinction between optional and obligatory limitations to the right to freedom of expression. Article 19 (3) states that limitations on freedom of expression "may therefore be subject to certain restrictions", as long as they are provided by law and necessary to certain legitimate purposes. Article 20 states that any advocacy of (certain kinds of) hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence "shall be prohibited by law." Despite indications on the gravity of speech offenses that should be prohibited by law under Article 20, there remains complexity. In particular there is a grey area in conceptualizing clear distinctions between (i) expressions of hatred, (ii) expression that advocate hatred, and (iii) hateful speech that specifically constitutes incitement to the practical harms of discrimination, hostility or violence. While states have an obligation to prohibit speech conceived as "advocacy to hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence", as consistent with Article 20 (2), how to interpret such is not clearly defined. Other international legal instruments ICERD The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which came into force in 1969, has also implications for conceptualizing forms of hate speech. The ICERD differs from the ICCPR in three respects. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has actively addressed hate speech in its General Recommendation 29, in which the Committee recommends state parties to: "(r) Take measures against any dissemination of ideas of caste superiority and inferiority or which attempt to justify violence, hatred or discrimination against descent-based communities; (s) Take strict measures against any incitement to discrimination or violence against the communities, including through the Internet; (t) Take measures to raise awareness among media professionals of the nature and incidence of descent-based discrimination;" These points, which reflect the ICERD's reference to the dissemination of expression, have significance for the Internet. The expression of ideas in some online contexts may immediately amount to spreading them. This is especially relevant for private spaces that have begun to play a public role, as in the case of many social networking platforms. and "prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish" acts of gender-based violence. Regional responses Most regional instruments do not have specific articles prescribing prohibition of hate speech, but they more generally allow states to limit freedom of expression—which provisions can be applied to specific cases. The Inter-American Court has advised that "(a)buse of freedom of information thus cannot be controlled by preventive measures but only through the subsequent imposition of sanctions on those who are guilty of the abuses." The Court also imposes a test for States willing to enact restrictions on freedom of expression, as they need to observe the following requirements: "a) the existence of previously established grounds for liability; b) the express and precise definition of these grounds by law; c) the legitimacy of the ends sought to be achieved; d) a showing that these grounds of liability are ‘necessary to ensure' the aforementioned ends." The Inter-American System has a Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression who conducted a comprehensive study on hate speech. He concluded that the Inter-American Human Rights System differs from the United Nations and the European approach on a key point: The Inter-American system covers and restricts hate speech that actually leads to violence, and solely such speech can be restricted. The criticism is mainly aimed at the fact that countries can manipulate their own legislation and weaken the essence of the right to freedom of expression. The Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa elaborates a higher standard for limitations on freedom of expression. It declares that the right "should not be restricted on public order or national security grounds unless there is a real risk of harm to a legitimate interest and there is a close causal link between the risk of harm and the expression." Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam In 1990, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (which was later renamed Organization of Islamic Cooperation, OIC) adopted the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI), which calls for criminalization of speech that extends beyond cases of imminent violence to encompass "acts or speech that denote manifest intolerance and hate." Arab Charter on Human Rights The Arab Charter on Human Rights, which was adopted by the Council of the League of Arab States in 2004, includes in Article 32 provisions that are relevant also for online communication as it guarantees the right to "freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any medium, regardless of geographical boundaries." It allows a limitation on a broad basis in paragraph 2 "Such rights and freedoms shall be exercised in conformity with the fundamental values of society." ASEAN Human Rights Declaration The ASEAN Human Rights Declaration includes the right to freedom of expression in Article 23. Article 7 of the Declaration provides for general limitations, affirming, "the realization of human rights must be considered in the regional and national context bearing in mind different political, economic, legal, social, cultural, historical and religious backgrounds." Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which declares the right to freedom of expression in Article 11, has a clause which prohibits abuse of rights. It asserts that the Charter must not be interpreted as implying any "limitation to a greater extent than is provided for therein." An example of a limitation which implies a strict test of necessity and proportionality is the provision on freedom of expression in the European Convention on Human Rights, which underlines that the exercise of freedom of expression carries duties and responsibilities. It "may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary." The European Court of Human Rights is careful to distinguish between hate speech and the right of individuals to express their views freely, even if others take offense. There are regional instances relevant specifically to online hate speech. The Council of Europe (CoE) in 2000 issued a General Policy Recommendation on Combating the Dissemination of Racist, Xenophobic and Anti-Semitic Material via the Internet. The creation of the CoE Convention on Cybercrime in 2001, which regulates mutual assistance regarding investigative powers, provides signatory countries with a mechanism to deal with computer data, which would include transnational hate speech online. In 2003 the CoE launched an additional protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime which addresses online expression of racism and xenophobia. The convention and its protocol were opened for signature and ratification of countries outside Europe, and other countries, such as Canada and South Africa, are already part of this convention. The Protocol imposes an obligation on Member States to criminalize racist and xenophobic insults online of "(i) persons for the reason that they belong to a group distinguished by race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion, if used as a pretext for any of these factors; or (ii) a group of persons which is distinguished by any of these characteristics." Private spaces Internet intermediaries such as social networking platforms, Internet Service Providers or Search Engines, stipulate in their terms of service how they may intervene in allowing, restricting, or channelling the creation and access to specific content. A vast amount of online interactions occur on social networking platforms that transcend national jurisdictions and which platforms have also developed their own definitions of hate speech and measures to respond to it. For a user who violates the terms of service, the content he or she has posted may be removed from the platform, or its access may be restricted to be viewed only by a certain category of users (e.g. users living outside a specific country). All Internet intermediaries operated by private companies are also expected to respect human rights. This is set out in the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights elaborated by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The document emphasizes corporate responsibility to respect human rights through due diligence. In principle 11, it declares that: "Business enterprises should respect human rights. This means that they should avoid infringing on the human rights of others and should address adverse human rights impacts with which they are involved." The United Nations Guiding Principles also indicate that in cases in which human rights are violated, companies should "provide for or cooperate in their remediation through legitimate processes." In the case of Internet intermediaries and conceptions of hate speech, this means that they should ensure that measures are in place to provide a commensurate response. == Social responses ==

Case studies The American Trends Panel The Pew Research Center surveyed over 10,000 adults in July 2020 to study social media's effect on politics and social justice activism. 23% of respondents, who are adult social media users, reported that social media content has caused them to change their opinion, positively or negatively, on a political or social justice issue. 35% of those respondents cited the Black Lives Matter movement, police reform, and/or race relations. Alt-right groups can share and persuade others of their controversial beliefs as bluntly and brashly as they desire, on any platform, which may have played a role in the 2016 election. Although the study could not conclude what exactly the effect was on the election, but did provide extensive research on the characteristics of media manipulation and trolling. Gray examined sexism and racism in the online gaming community. Gamers attempt to identify the gender, sexuality, and ethnic background of their teammates and opponents through linguistic profiling, when the other players cannot be seen. One of the most notable "clans," Puerto Reekan Killaz, have created an online gaming space where Black and Latina women of the LGBTQIA+ community can play without risk of racism, nativism, homophobia, sexism, and sexual harassment. Identity Tourism often leads to stereotyping, discrimination, and cultural appropriation. Anti-Chinese Rhetoric Employed by Perpetrators of Anti-Asian Hate As of August 2020, over 2,500 Asian-Americans have reported experiencing racism fueled by COVID-19, with 30.5% of those cases containing anti-Chinese rhetoric, according to Stop AAPI (Asian-American/Pacific Islander) Hate. The language used in these incidents are divided into five categories: virulent animosity, scapegoating of China, anti-immigrant nativism, racist characterizations of Chinese, and racial slurs. 60.4% of these reported incidents fit into the virulent animosity category, which includes phrases such as "get your Chinese ass away from me!" Pakistan Online hate speech and cyberbullying against religious and ethnic minorities, women, and other socially marginalized groups have long been an issue that is downplayed and/or ignored in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Hate Speech against Ahmadis both online and in real life have led to their large-scale persecution. BytesForAll, a South Asian initiative and an APC member project released a study on hate speech online in Pakistan on June 7, 2014. The research included two independent phases: According to the report: Myanmar The Internet has grown at unprecedented rates. Myanmar is transitioning towards greater openness and access, which leads to social media negatives, such as using hate speech and calls to violence. In 2014, the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues expressed her concern over the spread of misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence, discrimination and hostility in the media and Internet, particularly targeted against a minority community. One challenge in this process has concerned ethnic and religious minorities. In 2013, 43 people were killed due to clashes that erupted after a dispute in the Rakhine state in the Western Part of the country. Against this backdrop, the rapid emergence of new online spaces, albeit for a fraction of the population, has reflected some of these deeply rooted tensions in a new form. In this complex situation, a variety of actors has begun to mobilize, seeking to offer responses that can avoid further violence. Facebook has sought to take a more active role in monitoring the uses of the social network platform in Myanmar, developing partnerships with local organizations and making guidelines on reporting problems accessible in Burmese. Local activists have been focussed upon local solutions, rather than trying to mobilize global civil society on these issues. This is in contrast to some other online campaigns that have been able to attract the world's attention towards relatively neglected problems. Initiatives such as those promoted by the Save Darfur Coalition for the civil war in Sudan, or the organization Invisible Children with the Kony2012 campaign that denounced the atrocities committed by the Lord Resistance Army, are popular examples. As commentaries on these campaigns have pointed out, such global responses may have negative repercussions on the ability for local solutions to be found. Ethiopia ;2019–2020 The long-lived ethnic rivalry in Ethiopia between the Oromo people and the Amhara people found a battleground on Facebook, leading to hate speech, threats, disinformation, and deaths. Facebook does not have fact-checkers that speak either of the dominant languages spoken in Ethiopia, nor do they provide translations of the Community Standards, therefore hate speech on Facebook is widely unmonitored in Ethiopia. Instead, Facebook relies on activists to flag potential hate speech and disinformation, but many burned-out activists feel mistreated. In October 2019, Ethiopian activist Jawar Mohammed falsely announced on Facebook that the police were going to detain him, citing religious and ethnic tension. This prompted the community to protest his alleged detainment and the racial and ethnic tensions, which led to over 70 deaths. A disinformation campaign originated on Facebook centering on popular Ethiopian singer, Hachalu Hundessa, of the Oromo ethnic group. The posts accused Hundessa of supporting their controversial Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whom Oromo nationalists disproved of for his catering to other ethnic groups. Hundessa was assassinated in June 2020 following the hateful Facebook posts, prompting public outrage. Facebook users blamed the Amhara people for Hundessa's assassination without any evidence in a long thread of hateful content. Twitter In December 2017, Twitter began enforcing new policies towards hate speech, banning multiple accounts as well as setting new guidelines for what will be allowed on their platform. There is an entire page in the Twitter Help Center devoted to describing their Hateful Conduct Policy, as well as their enforcement procedures. The top of this page states "Freedom of expression means little if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up. We do not tolerate behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another person’s voice. If you see something on Twitter that violates these rules, please report it to us." Twitter's definition of hate speech ranges from "violent threats" and "wishes for the physical harm, death, or disease of individuals or groups" to "repeated and/or non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone." Punishments for violations range from suspending a user's ability to tweet until they take down their offensive/ hateful post to the removal of an account entirely. In a statement following the implementation of their new policies, Twitter said "In our efforts to be more aggressive here, we may make some mistakes and are working on a robust appeals process" . . . "We’ll evaluate and iterate on these changes in the coming days and weeks, and will keep you posted on progress along the way". These changes come amidst a time when action is being taken to prevent hate speech around the globe, including new laws in Europe which pose fines for sites unable to address hate speech reports within 24 hours. YouTube YouTube, an online video platform and subsidiary of the tech company Google, allows for easy content distribution and access for any content creator, which creates opportunity for the audience to access content that shifts right or left of the moderate ideology common in mainstream media. YouTube provides incentives to popular content creators, prompting some creators to optimize the YouTuber experience and post shock-valued content that may promote extremist, hateful ideas. Content diversity and monetization on YouTube directs a broad audience to the potentially harmful content from extremists. but radical content creators still have their channels and subscribers to keep them culturally relevant and financially afloat. The policy is worded as such: "We encourage free speech and try to defend your right to express unpopular points of view, but we don't permit hate speech. Hate speech refers to content that promotes violence against or has the primary purpose of inciting hatred against individuals or groups based on certain attributes, such as: race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation/gender identity". YouTube has built in a user reporting system in order to counteract the growing trend of hate speech. Among the most popular deterrents against hate speech, users are able to anonymously report another user for content they deem inappropriate. The content is then reviewed against YouTube policy and age restrictions, and either taken down or left alone. Facebook Facebook's terms forbid content that is harmful, threatening or which has potential to stir hatred and incite violence. In its community standards, Facebook elaborates that "Facebook removes hate speech, which includes content that directly attacks people based on their: race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases." It further states that "We allow humour, satire or social commentary related to these topics, and we believe that when people use their authentic identity, they are more responsible when they share this kind of commentary. For that reason, we ask that Page owners associate their name and Facebook Profile with any content that is insensitive, even if that content does not violate our policies. As always, we urge people to be conscious of their audience when sharing this type of content." Facebook's hate speech policies are enforced by 7,500 content reviewers, as well as many Artificial Intelligence monitors. Because this requires difficult decision making, controversy arises among content reviewers over enforcement of policies. Some users seem to feel as though the enforcement is inconsistent. One apt past example is two separate but similarly graphic postings that wished death to members of a specific religion. Both post were flagged by users and reviewed by Facebook staff. However, only one was removed even though they carried almost identical sentiments. In a quote regarding hate speech on the platform, Facebook Vice President of Global Operations, Justin Osofky stated, "We’re sorry for the mistakes we have made — they do not reflect the community we want to help build…We must do better." While the company protects against gender based hatred, it does not protect against hatred based on occupation. Facebook has been accused of holding bias when policing hate speech, citing political campaign ads that may promote hate or misinformation that have made an impact on the platform. When Facebook initially flags content that may contain hate speech, they then designate it to a Tier 1, 2, and 3 scale, based on the content's severity. Tier 1 is the most severe and Tier 3 is the least. Tier 1 includes anything that conveys "violent speech or support for death/disease/harm." Tier 2 is classified as content that slanders another user's image mentally, physically, or morally. Tier 3 includes anything that can potentially exclude or discriminate against others, or that uses slurs about protected groups, but does not necessarily apply to arguments to restrict immigration or criticism of existing immigration policies. In May 2019, it announced bans on several prominent people for violations of its prohibition on hate speech, including Alex Jones, Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer, and Paul Nehlen. In 2020, Facebook added guidelines to Tier 1 that forbid blackface, racial comparisons to animals, racial or religious stereotypes, denial of historical events, and objectification of women and the LGBTQIA+ community. Hate Speech on Facebook and Instagram quadrupled in 2020, leading to the removal of 22.5 million posts on Facebook and 3.3 million posts on Instagram in the second quarter of 2020 alone. The article reported that Meta had previously confirmed that the use of this word for the LGBT community violates its hate speech policies. Microsoft Microsoft has specific rules concerning hate speech for a variety of its applications. Its policy for mobile phones prohibits applications that "contain any content that advocates discrimination, hatred, or violence based on considerations of race, ethnicity, national origin, language, gender, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, status as a veteran, or membership in any other social group." The company has also rules regarding online gaming, which prohibit any communication that is indicative of "hate speech, controversial religious topics and sensitive current or historical events." TikTok TikTok has been criticised for lacking clear guidelines and control on hate speech, which have allowed cases of bullying, harassment, propaganda, and hate speech to appear on TikTok. It can be argued that as children are naive and easily influenced by other people and messages, they are more likely to listen and repeat what they are being shown or told. Children and parents often Other social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have been active long enough to know how to battle online hate speech and vulgar content, Citizenship education focuses on preparing individuals to be informed and responsible citizens through the study of rights, freedoms, and responsibilities and has been variously employed in societies emerging from violent conflict. One of its main objectives is raising awareness on the political, social and cultural rights of individuals and groups, including freedom of speech and the responsibilities and social implications that emerge from it. The concern of citizenship education with hate speech is twofold: it encompasses the knowledge and skills to identify hate speech, and should enable individuals to counteract messages of hatred. One of its current challenges is adapting its goals and strategies to the digital world, providing not only argumentative but also technological knowledge and skills that a citizen may need to counteract online hate speech. Multiple and complementary literacies become critical. The emergence of new technologies and social media has played an important role in this shift. Individuals have evolved from being only consumers of media messages to producers, creators and curator of information, resulting in new models of participation that interact with traditional ones, like voting or joining a political party. Teaching strategies are changing accordingly, from fostering critical reception of media messages to include empowering the creation of media content. The concept of media and information literacy itself continues to evolve, being augmented by the dynamics of the Internet. It is beginning to embrace issues of identity, ethics and rights in cyberspace. Some of these skills can be particularly important when identifying and responding to hate speech online. Series of initiatives aimed both at providing information and practical tools for Internet users to be active digital citizens: • ‘No place for hate' by Anti-Defamation League (ADL), United States; • ‘In other words' project by Provincia di Mantova and the European Commission; • ‘Facing online hate' by MediaSmarts, Canada; • ‘No hate speech movement' by Youth Department of the Council of Europe, Europe; • ‘Online hate' by the Online Hate Prevention Institute, Australia. Education is also seen as being a tool against hate speech. Laura Geraghty from the ‘No Hate Speech Movement' affirmed: "Education is key to prevent hate speech online. It is necessary to raise awareness and empower people to get online in a responsible way; however, you still need the legal background and instruments to prosecute hate crimes, including hate speech online, otherwise the preventive aspect won't help." == Sources ==