Addressing the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on 2 June 2016, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors described country engagement and highlighted the disturbing increase in hate speech.

The statement covered the High Commissioner’s activities since her last statement to the Permanent Council in November 2015. During this period Thors visited Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova.

The High Commissioner expressed concern about the increase in hate speech targeting national minorities. Thors called for renewed efforts to tackle hate speech in order to prevent tensions and to promote integration with respect for diversity.

Thors also informed the Permanent Council about the work her institution is doing together with researchers to identify best practices that highlight the bridge building potential of national minorities in diverse societies.

The full statement can be found here.

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Addressing the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on 2 June 2016, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors described country engagement and highlighted the disturbing increase in hate speech.

The statement covered the High Commissioner’s activities since her last statement to the Permanent Council in November 2015. During this period Thors visited Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova.

The High Commissioner expressed concern about the increase in hate speech targeting national minorities. Thors called for renewed efforts to tackle hate speech in order to prevent tensions and to promote integration with respect for diversity.

Thors also informed the Permanent Council about the work her institution is doing together with researchers to identify best practices that highlight the bridge building potential of national minorities in diverse societies.

The full statement can be found here.

Related Stories

• OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities holds fifth regional summer school on multilingual and multicultural education in Central Asia
• Language rights, participation, security and access to justice fundamental to welfare of communities in Kosovo, says High Commissioner Thors
• OSCE High Commissioner encourages inclusive approach to integration and education issues in Moldova and welcomes joint working group on Gagauzia

These speeches aim to portray Muslims as a threat to other religious communities. The narratives hence paint Muslims as a community intent on depriving others of national resources, fostering discord and enmity among religious groups.

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this qualitative study is to explore social workers’ representations of hate speech (HS), the effects it has on the community, and socio-educational actions aimed at combating it. Background: Hate speech is any form of communication that promotes discrimination, hostility, or violence towards individuals or groups based on their identity. Although its spread is facilitated by particular characteristics of the online environment (such as anonymity and ubiquity), HS has pervasive consequences even in offline reality. In the last year, several community-based projects involving social workers have been implemented to address the problem. Professionals who work with the community play a crucial strategic role in the fight against HS. Therefore, it is imperative to begin by considering their perspective to gain a better understanding of HS and how it can be controlled. Methodology: Following a psycho-sociological perspective, six focus groups were conducted with 42 social workers (19 females and 23 males) belonging to associations or organizations of a different nature, such as NGOs, local social promotion organizations, universities, private social organizations, whose mission included the theme of countering hate speech. Contribution: There are no studies in the literature that consider the views of operators working to counter hate speech within communities. Our study contributes to deepening the knowledge of the phenomenon and identifying the most suitable strategies to combat it, starting from an approach that does not only focus on the online or offline dimension but on an integrated “onlife” approach. The study offers an outline of how hate speech affects the daily lives of the communities in the cities of Torino, Palermo, and Ancona. Additionally, it proposes a grassroots strategy to address hate speech. Findings: The results suggest that strategies effective in countering hate speech in offline contexts may not be effective in online environments. The technological revolution brought about by social media has significantly expanded the potential audience while weakening traditional communities. Addressing hate speech in the present context requires efforts to rebuild fragmented communities, gaining a thorough understanding of how the new virtual public space operates, and prioritizing hate speech as a specific concern only after these initial steps. Recommendation for Researchers: Hate speech represents a violation of human rights and a threat to freedom of expression. The spread of hateful messages has a significant impact on society, as it can negatively influence social cohesion, diversity, and inclusion. Understanding the causes and consequences of hate speech can help develop effective strategies to prevent and counter it, which is a crucial challenge for both research and society as a whole. Studying hate speech should involve the use of interdisciplinary methodologies. Future Research: Future research should focus on comparative analysis at the European Union level to assess the ability of civil society in other countries to develop effective strategies against hate speech.

Facebook faces a $2 billion lawsuit over hate speech; Expanse co-author Ty Franck on the role of nuclear fusion in sci-fi universes and the real world; making sense of the connection between respiratory virus outbreaks and invasive Strep A bacterial infections; a theatre director's bid to bring British holiday 'pantos' to Canada; Israeli documentary Tantura confronts an alleged massacre in a Palestinian village; and more.

The Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies has asked the Equality Court in Cape Town to declare politician Mehmet Vefa Dag's social media posts about about Jewish people hate speech.

[Ghanaian Times] The Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Ms Kathleen Addy, has cautioned Ghanaians against hate speech as it could cause conflict in the lead-up to the General Election.

Meta is struggling to fully contain and address hate speech ahead of the U.S. election, according to research shared exclusively with the Thomson Reuters Foundation

A anti-terrorism court on Saturday adjourned the hearing of cases pertaining to anti-state and hate speeches against leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and London factions without any proceedings because of the coronavirus lockdown.The hearings of as many as 27 identical cases was...

The proposed alliance — to be named the Information Trust Alliance (ITA) — will be a grouping of digital platforms and publishers, fact checkers, civil society and academia that will aim to control the spread of harmful content, including fake news and hate speech. So far, discussions have taken place among Facebook, Google, Twitter, Byte-Dance, ShareChat and YY Inc.

Conservative lightning rod has history of anti-environmental comments.

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

• San Antonio City Council in Texas has unanimously voted to label terms including "Chinese virus" and "kung-fu virus" as hate speech.
• It was responding to a growth in racist and antisemitic incidents in the city, triggered by the coronavirus crisis.
• "Unfortunately, during times of crises, we do see the best of humanity and sometimes we also see the worst," said Mayor Ron Nirenberg. 
• Senator Ted Cruz called the decision "nuts," saying that the city council was "behaving like a lefty college faculty lounge." 
• It comes after Trump faced criticism for his use of the term "Chinese virus" at a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The city of San Antonio in Texas has unanimously passed a resolution condemning the use of terms such as "Chinese virus" and "kung-fu virus" as hate speech.

It also encouraged residents to report "any such antisemitic, discriminatory or racist incidents" to the relevant authorities following several incidents in the city since the pandemic began, reports San Antonio's WOAI-TV.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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The alarming rise of anti-Semitism in this country and other parts of the world is completely unacceptable, a letter to the editor says.

It also passed a string of directions on safe passage for the bodies of the victims, their proper burial/cremation, adequate number of helplines and help desks, besides rehabilitation of those affected.

Unlike Wednesday, when Justices Muralidhar and Talwant Singh questioned the Solicitor General repeatedly over the delay in lodging FIRs and had video clips of the hate speeches played in open court with proceedings lasting through the day, the hearing Thursday was over in less than an hour.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday highlighted crimes against humanity and grave mismanagement of the law in Libya during a release of their latest report on the North African nation.  Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, said enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, hate speech, and severe maltreatment of detainees remains a massive concern in […]

The post Enforced Disappearances, Arbitrary Detentions, Hate Speech & Attacks on Civilians – ICC Report on Libya appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Saudi officials ordered to arrest a citizen for abusing a non-Muslim expatriate for not embracing Islam. Saudi Arabia is a member of OIC that wrote to PM Modi on Islamophobia in India.

Europe’s top court has ruled that individual countries can force Facebook to take down illegal content, including hate speech, both inside the EU and across the world. Malcolm Moore discusses the implications of the ruling for freedom of expression with Mehreen Khan and Madhumita Murgia.

Contributors: Malcolm Moore, technology news editor, Mehreen Khan, Brussels correspondent, and Madhumita Murgia, European Technology correspondent, Producers: Fiona Symon and Persis Love

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Texas city San Antonio's Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who put forward the now-passed resolution, blamed the use of the terms Chinese virus and Kung Fu virus for a rise in hate speech.

The move to remove re-blogged content containing hate speech marks an escalation in Tumblr's efforts to clean its platform. Previously only original posts were removed while re-blogs remained active.

The abhorrent remarks by actor-turned-Trinamool MP Tapas Pal, stating that he would get the women among his opponents raped, have left many outraged but drawn mild reactions from his party and no legal action at all. Shoma Chatterji exposes the milieu where leaders like Pal enjoy complete impunity.

Now, analysts at New Yorks University of Rochester are fighting back with an AI of their own.

The team collected about a quarter of a million unique English tweets from between Sept. 23—the first reported incident of hate-code words—and Oct. 18—a week after the second US presidential election debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

There were some interesting observations that we noted.

complete article

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday announced the launch of the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has backed "new forms of self-policing by social media platforms" and action by volunteer groups to fight hate speech spreading at "lightning speed" through digital media.

Dewey Library - JC591.F56 2019