Description:

A wide range of policy and practice initiatives have been launched in past years at international and national levels to address the risks hate speech online poses to human rights and societies. The responses launched by governments, industry and CSO’s range from preventive measures (eg. education and awareness raising), protection (eg, content moderation, self-regulation, victim support), and prosecution (eg. reviews of criminal, civil and administrative codes, and mechanisms for their application). Responses should be mutually reinforcing and uphold the human rights of internet users, as outlined for example in the Council of Europe Guide to Human Rights for Internet Users. The implementation of existing policies has, however, proven challenging. ‘Hate speech’ means different things in different societies and the cross-border operationalisation of content restriction policies amid the diversity of local contexts remains problematic. This is all the more so, as the right to freedom of expression and opinion must be upheld in all democratic societies. Governments, industry and CSO’s in determining their strategies to address hate speech need to balance different considerations. For example importance of judicial oversight of content moderation decision, but also the need to manage fast amount of online content on multitude of platforms. Long term gains of education to address hate speech will not address the need of victims to push back against discrimination and protect their human rights today. The Council of Europe is hosting this session to gather reflections and promising practices from participants based on their own experiences with the ongoing initiatives of governments, industry and CSO’s. What works? Who must be involved? How can democratically legitimised oversight over speech be ensured? These reflections will provide valuable input into the deliberations of a newly established inter-disciplinary Committee of Experts. The “Council of Europe Expert Committee on Combating Hate Speech” is tasked to prepare a draft Committee of Ministers’ recommendation on ‘a comprehensive approach to addressing hate speech within a human rights framework’.

This 60 minutes session will consist of three phases.

1. An introduction to the concept of a comprehensive approach to combating hate speech within a human rights framework by one expert speakers. They will reflect on the opportunities and challenges of such an approach building on 1. Council of Europe standards and case law of the European Court of Human Rights, and 2. Experiences with practical tools and approaches developed by the Council of Europe and its partners (CSO, industry).
2. Break-out groups to reflect on promising practices and opportunities to realise a human rights-based approach towards hate speech within the three main areas of intervention: prevention, protection and prosecution (see under issues). Each breakout group will be facilitated by content experts. Following a brief introduction, groups will be asked to: identify and review their own experiences and existing practices; reflect on a multi-stakeholder approach identifying roles and responsibilities; reflect on interaction between the three areas of intervention.
3. The closing plenary will collect the feedback from the breakout groups. Participants will also receive information on the work of the Council of Europe Committee of Expert on Combatting hate speech and how they can engage. The session will be facilitated by the Council of Europe, with support from content experts who will facilitate the break-out sessions.