ONLINE HATE SPEECH ISSUE WINTER 2013 WWW.IGLYO.COM23 Online Hate Speech v1.indd 1 08/01/2014 12:56 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 A NO HatE SPEECH ONLINE ACTIVist’S CONFEssion 2 YOUTH WITHOUT FRONTIERS 6 ILLUSTRATED SEction: What IS HatE SPEECH? 8 THE NO HatE SPEECH MOVEMENT – A CAMPAIGN FOR YOU 16 GREY AREAS: TEnsions BETWEEN ProtEction FROM hatE SPEECH AND THE RIGHT to FREEDOM OF SPEECH ? 20 Project Co-ordinators Jenn Byrne and Jordan Long Contributors Eirik Rise, Marta Gianello Guida, Aileen Donegan and Jordan Long This publication is published with support of the European Community Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity PROGRESS (2007-2013), Illustrated section the Council of Europe European Youth Foundation and the Government of Rosa Devine www.rosadevine.com the Netherlands. The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect Design the position or opinion of the European Commission, Council of Europe www.haiwyre.com or the Government of the Netherlands. Online Hate Speech v1.indd 2 08/01/2014 12:56 INTRODUCTION 1 Hate speech. It is in the name: hate. Hate is a This issue of IGLYO On Online Hate Speech powerful force; it is strong and can be contagious, seeks to explore the concept of hate speech like a disease. Passed from generation to in relation to freedom of speech. We also generation or from population to population, hate introduce our readers to the existing situations is something that spreads easily if left unchecked. and campaigns at a wider European context as represented in the Council of Europe’s No Hate Hate speech’s online aspect is no exception. In Speech Movement and at a smaller national and fact, it is arguably worse. Online hate speech regional scale in Norway and Turin, Italy. experiences less censure or opposition than hate speech in the public sphere. It also benefits from the availability of online anonymity and transnational interactions. People can and will Hate Speech is not say hateful things online that they would never express in public, and its reach and consequences something to be tolerated are wider. Young LGBTQ individuals, particularly but to be combated. And those who are subject to multiple forms of we have the tools to do discrimination, are particularly vulnerable to hate just that. speech that targets them because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Hate Speech is not something to be tolerated Here at IGLYO, with our member organisations but to be combated. And we, as individuals and and partners, we are determined to join in organisations, have the tools to do just that. the fight against online hate speech. We work So join us and speak up and speak out against towards tackling the root causes of hate speech online hate speech. in an attempt to ensure that no one feels Yours in solidarity against hate, victimised or driven to extreme measures because of hateful discourse. Jenn Byrne Junior Communications and For the first time ever, IGLYO uses the medium Policy Officer Intern of an illustrated narrative to present some of the key aspects of online hate speech. Online Hate Speech v1.indd 3 08/01/2014 12:56 A NO Hate SPEECH ONLINE ACTIVist’S CONFession EIRIK RISE, SKEIV UNGDOM NORWAY The search for hate and members of vulnerable groups targets of their I must admit, when I first heard of the No Hate intolerance. Speech campaign, my internal response was: I left them there, alone in their hate. The words What? We don’t have that issue here in Norway, they wrote still were not the hate speech for not really. Maybe in other countries. I’ve never which I had been searching. It was the hate seen any of this hate speech. We don’t have a speech that made people stop reading the human rights issue. We hardly mention human comment field, the meaningless intolerance rights in a national context. And we don’t learn that drew the focus away from real debate and about them in school. Human right violations made the interaction space of the internet into don’t happen in Norway. So why would be need a an unattractive desert. The content they spread campaign against Hate Speech? Out of solidarity? was bad, no question about it. But it wasn’t worth Despite those initial reservations, I wanted to give sticking your hands into it- let alone the law. it a chance. I started my own quest in identifying I kept following the public debate, the words of what hate speech is in a Norwegian national populist politicians, online haters, but I couldn’t context. Is it about online bullying? Is it about the find any big monsters worth fighting—just the echo chambers of radicalization and extremism? well-accepted, every-day racism and intolerance About young people travelling to the middle east targeted towards everything and anything from to do holy war? About Anders Bering Breivik, the asylum seekers to Roma and LGBTQ people. The terrorist? Public discourse already labelled hate price you had to pay for freedom of speech. But speech as mandatory political correctness. Was what is freedom of speech? there any hate speech in Norway? How could we recognize it? Democracy in a free nation Next year is the year of the 200-year anniversary As I started searching for hate speech, I read the for the Norwegian constitution. In 1814 the comment fields of online newspaper, looking for “founding fathers” of Norway sat down and wrote what could be trigger words. I was almost hoping one of the then most modern constitutions in the to find some loose canon, some wild extremist world. A constitution that even today still brings opinions so far out of control that it would go fascination and respect. Each paragraph could be under hate speech legislation and had to be a source for hours of studies. What few remember stopped, once and for all. Haters needed to be is that when it came in 1814, it stated that “Jews gone: let’s out the trolls and fight them bravely. are still not allowed into the Norwegian kingdom”. But the result was scarce. The ones I found were This text stayed unchanged for over 40 years. lonely wolfs, hunting in packs of one, perhaps How can a democracy be built on the two. People with a lot of hateful opinions, a lot of discrimination and exclusion of others? How can free time, and who felt like their opinion should one of the most renowned democracies in the triumph over the ones of other. They took pride world have a hateful constitution? in rejecting the identity and values of minorities Online Hate Speech v1.indd 4 08/01/2014 12:56 2-3 The last time I read about Roma people in a where you can embrace diversity. In my work, Norwegian context, it was about police breaking I’ve observed some taboos that still exist within up Roma-settlements and a suggestion of human rights; not everyone is in included in the reintroducing a ban on begging. The newspapers conversation, even in 2013. But what is counted wrote about the “Roma-problem” that needed a as a taboo is different from country to country. solution. In the 1990s Czech president Vaclav LGBTQ rights are a prime example. In Norwegian Havel once described the treatment of the society and public discourse, sexual orientation Roma as “a litmus test for democracy”. How can and gender identity are given respect and papers and media speak about a group of human much consideration. To use the language of beings as a problem? Politicians follow not far international law, Norway mainstreams LGBT after, underlining the problem of Roma people rights into the human rights discourse. Many in Norway. Could this be that stone I had been people take pride in our nation as a front fighter looking for; was this discourse hate speech? for human rights, bringing the values to countries that don’t respect fundamental rights and freedoms. And done in the right way, supporting the grassroots movement working for human Saying no to hate speech rights for LGBT people, this is a great thing. is saying yes free speech. But when it is overshadowing our own human It is about creating a space rights issues, taking away the focus from the rights of Roma people, the disabled, asylum for open debate where seekers, immigrants, or religious minorities, then everyone can contribute. it becomes a threat to true equality. Human rights are for all, not for one- or one group. You can’t pick your favorites and leave the rest. Saying no to hate speech is saying yes free A world of discrimination speech. It is about creating a space for open A definition, intersectionality: Seeing the way debate where everyone can contribute. As Council different types of discrimination interlink and of Europe’s Director General says it – “hate speech how multiple identities can lead to multiple is the dark side of democracy”. The public debate discrimination. For instance, consider a person that feeds on hate is destroying democracy. in a wheelchair who is also queer. Risking both We don’t have real debates, we have parties discrimination from both “camps”, and not fitting struggling of how to win the haters over to their into either, or mainstream society. side. Why aren’t politicians taking responsibility? A campaign of possibilities The No Hate Speech campaign is that it is a place Continued over Online Hate Speech v1.indd 5 08/01/2014 12:56 Continued from previous Removing discrimination from its various boxes society, for what is Norwegian, for what is and placing the various types next to each other reasonable, the love for truth.