Project Synopsis
Title: Countering online hate speech — how to adequately protect fundamental rights?
Today, more than 4,5 billion people communicate through the Internet. Easy access, large audiences, anonymity and instantaneous publication of unfiltered contents all contribute to expeditious information spread and suggest new tools for large-scale influence. Online platforms have developed internal self-regulatory polices to counter hate speech and are regulating, presently, more speech content than any other system of governance since human rights law was created. Such private regulatory frameworks remain opaque, lack democratic enforcement and legal remedy mechanisms. At eLaw Leiden University, we will contribute to Work Package No 2 of the NETHATE project, which focuses on Technology and Social Media. This research aims at conducting a fundamental rights analysis on how online platforms counter hate speech through the deployment of digital technologies. More specifically, this work will seek to: 1) advance the legal conceptualisation of hate speech; 2) systematize legal obligations when regulating online hate speech; 3) propose and evaluate, from a human rights perspective, new mitigation and enforcement designs; and 4) study remedy mechanisms compliant with international human rights law.
host institution
organization(s)
supervisor(s)
Prof. Simone van der Hof, Leiden University, technology law, children’s rights, cyberbullying, online sexual abuse, privacy and data protection
Prof. Tarlach McGonagle, Leiden University, media law, rights of minorities, freedom of speech