- What is hate speech?
Hate Speech is speech that expresses hatred, hostility, or distaste toward or about a person on the basis of the person’s membership in a particular type of group.
- Who does hate speech affect?
Anyone can be a victim of hate speech. Most commonly, the group referred to in hate speech has a particular gender (e.g. women), sexuality (e.g. homosexual or queer people), Religion (e.g. Islamophobia), or ethnicity (e.g. Rohingya people). But hate speech can be used against any grouping used in societies to differentiate different groups of people, such as class, race, political affiliation, nationality, ideology or self-identification.
- What counts as hate speech?
Hate speech is not just spoken words; written texts, memes, cartoons, propaganda, images and videos all count as hate speech. Any expression that conveys meaning could be hate speech, if it conveys negative attitudes, assumptions etc. about a group of people. Examples include (cyber-)bullying, using racist language, intentionally spreading misinformation about a group of people, and using stereotypes to depict a group or individual.
- Is hate speech illegal?
Different countries have different laws about hate speech. While most developed democracies have laws that restrict hate speech, some countries (such as the United States) do not have any laws governing hate speech. Most countries’ hate speech laws follow the principles of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) (ICCPR), which has 75 signatories and 173 states party. ICCPR Article 20(2) says that “Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.”
- Is hate speech protected by free speech?
Hate speech is not protected by freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, by any means. While ICCPR Article 19 states that everyone “should have the right to hold opinions without interference” and “shall have the right to freedom of expression,” it also stipulates that,
“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 they are provided by law and necessary: a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; b) For the protection of national Security or of public order (order public) or of public health or morals.”
Governments therefore have a responsibility to stop hate speech, which is not included under freedom of expression.
- How do you report hate speech?
Unfortunately, reporting hate speech is often harder than it should be. You can report hate speech to human rights bodies or the police, but people may feel afraid of contacting the police or feel unsatisfied with their response. The third-party app Speak Out, Stop Hate (SOS Hate) [LINK TO APP] allows anybody to report hate speech in Burmese, Malay, or English, which can be useful for people who do not want to contact the police or have been disappointed by their response.
You can also contact local organizations to find out more about reporting hate speech. SOS Hate provides users with a list of community groups working on hate speech in Burma and Malaysia.
- How do you identify messages online as hate speech?
If you have received or seen a message online that conveys a negative attitude about a group or individuals, including yourself, that directly or indirectly references a group they could be considered part of, then it is probably hate speech.
Social media platforms have algorithms that identify and allow you to report hate speech. However, these algorithm only work in certain languages, creating a disparity in hate-speech reporting between countries that use global languages such as English, Spanish, and Mandarin, and the rest of the world’s languages. For instance, Facebook’s hate speech detection algorithm only works in 40 out of the 111 languages officially supported on its website/application. The success rates of individual language algorithms also vary widely, though Facebook has not disclosed this information.
If you are unsure whether something you have seen online constitutes hate speech, SOS HATE [LINK TO APP] allows you to input information about what you saw, and then it tells you whether the hate speech may violate any provisions of online platforms or any laws of your country.
- What should you do if you see hate speech online?
You should report hate speech immediately. If you witnessed hate speech on an online forum, thread or page, you can report it to the moderators, who should take it down straight away.
However, if the post appears on your newsfeed, it can be more difficult to get it taken down. If you have reported hate speech to Facebook, you probably also feel that you have sent your complaint into a void, because people rarely receive a response.
SOS Hate not only identifies whether online content breaches hate speech laws and social media provisions; it also makes it possible for app staff to contact the user and suggest guidance on pursuing a remedy, if the user has consented to this.
In some cases, this might mean reporting it to human rights bodies/mechanisms or even the police. But the app takes users’ safety as a priority. The app allows you to decide which solutions you want to pursue; to move forward alone or receive assistance from app staff; and to opt out at any point if you feel uncomfortable.
For this who do not want additional dialogue with staff, SOS Hate provides links to resources about hate speech and preventative action, and detailed information about how to submit a complaint to online platforms and human rights bodies.
- What should you do If you feel like you are in danger?
If you feel like you are in danger from another person or group, or if you are worried that you might harm yourself, you should seek help immediately. You might need to contact a doctor, human rights body, or relevant authorities.
The relevant group to contact might not always be clear, particularly in situations of unrest or political disruption. Moreover, mental health resources a severely lacking in many parts of the world, including Burma and areas of Malaysia. There is still a huge stigma attached to discussing self-harm, which prevents people from seeking the help that they need.
SOS Hate provides users with the resources they need if they feel like they are in danger, particularly from self-harm. Even if you are not in immediate danger, if you are experiencing negative psychological effects from the incident you are reporting, the app provides links and guidelines on what you should do next, in English, Burmese and Malay.
- How do you stop hate speech online?
There are several ways to combat hate speech online and stop the spread of violent actions:
Hold companies accountable for hate speech. Facebook is currently facing a £150bn lawsuit from Rohingya activists for their role in amplifying hate speech online. Facebook has since taken down the accounts of senior Myanmar military leaders, and more recently expanded its ban on pages of military-backed businesses. However, Facebook’s slowness to act is a sign that people should be constantly vigilant for hate speech and equipped with the resources to hold social media platforms accountable.
Raise awareness of the problem. Hate speech is often brushed under the table as a joke or as mere “freedom of speech.” These ideas are legally and morally flawed: speech is not free if it restricts the liberty of another person. We need to start talking about hate speech openly, to our family and friends, so that can fight hate online and elsewhere as a society.
Notify organizations fighting hate. In order to make an effective impact in the fight against hate, organizations need to know about it: where it is coming from, who it is directed at, and how it appears online.
As well as providing a list of hate speech organizations to contact in Burma and Malaysia, SOS Hate also collects complaint data, allowing staff to send aggregated, anonymous incident data to social media platforms to show them just how prevalent hate speech is online.
Data is essential for organizations to advocate for greater action on hate speech. Often people can be dissuaded from reporting hate speech because they want to move on quickly, or they convince themselves that the incident “wasn’t that bad.” It is important to reframe this kind of thinking about reporting hate.
Reporting hate speech is not just about protecting yourself from abuse; it is also about protecting every person in the future.
