Description This volume looks at the forms and functions of counterspeech as well as what determines its effectiveness and success from multidisciplinary perspectives. Counterspeech is in line with international human rights and freedom of speech, and it can be a much more powerful tool against dangerous and toxic speech than blocking and censorship. In the […]
Download the report Executive Summary The global landscape for freedom of expression has faced severe challenges in 2023. Even open democracies have implemented restrictive measures. The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) exemplifies this trend, the European Commission’s aggressive enforcement of which has raised concerns among rights groups. The Commission demands the removal of content classified […]
Access article By Natalie Alkiviadou Accepted: 13 October 2023 Abstract In 2023, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights issued its ruling in the case of Sanchez v France. The case revolved around the conviction of the applicant, a politician, for inciting hatred or violence against people due to their religious affiliation. […]
Authors Christian Bjørnskov, Jacob Mchangama The association between freedom of expression – freedom of speech and the freedom of the media – and social conflict is theoretically ambiguous and politically highly contested. On one side of the debate, people argue that freedom of speech and freedom of the media create social conflict by giving people and […]
Read the public hearing (in danish) Proposal L133: Arguments against its implementation Restricts freedom of expression: The proposal restricts freedom of expression, as it can be used to punish symbolic expressions critical of religions. This is contrary to the principle of freedom of expression, which is a central pillar of a democratic society and […]
This report sets out the trends and practices across regional and international institutions in relation to their approach towards and handling of hate speech. To do so, it relies on the database of the Global Freedom of Expression initiative at Columbia University and the database of the Future of Free Speech Project (Justitia). It aims […]
Scope Creep: An Assessment of 8 Social Media Platforms’ Hate Speech Policies SUMMARY At the turn of the 21st century, academics, civil society organizations, and governments hailed the promise of the Internet to eliminate any centralized control over speech. A few short decades later, however, this tech utopianism has disappeared. Dominant social media platforms […]
By Joan Barata and Andrei Richter This paper contributes to the discussions surrounding the internet and the challenges of its regulation. It is divided into two parts. Part one documents the international standards that have emerged pertaining to internet shutdowns, and part two explores the relevant case law at the national and international levels. The […]
By Natalie Alkiviadou Abstract This paper looks at the developments of hate speech regulation online, specifically its horizontalization, with private companies increasingly ruling on the permissibility levels of speech, placing the right to free speech at peril. To elucidate issues at stake, the paper will look at the meaning of hate speech, the online landscape […]
Justitias Natalie Alkiviadou in International journal of Human Rights “Whilst automated mechanisms can assist human moderators by picking up on potentially hateful speech, they should not be solely responsible for removing hate speech. Biased training data sets, the lack of relevant data and the lack of conceptualization of context and nuance can lead to wrong […]