High-impact hate speech by persons of authority: A lower threshold needed?

Judit Bayer

doi:10.1556/2052.2020.00003

Abstract

Abstract This paper discusses a global trend in the approach to hate speech. It describes how the international human rights organisations are recently addressing the dynamics of hate speech and how academic thinking is stretching the framework of the justification of hate speech regulations. This work analyses the aspect of cause and effect in the light of the role of the speaker; examining the academic argument that content expressed by public figures of authority have a higher impact, in particular in the context of the digital media ecosystem, with a social media dominance.

Highlights

The highly discussed controversy around hate speech2 appears to have culminated in a global discussion, where the opposing sides have found themselves getting closer to each other after an initial deconstruction of the elements of their argumentations
It describes how the international human rights organisations are recently addressing the dynamics of hate speech and how academic thinking is stretching the framework of the justification of hate speech regulations
This work analyses the aspect of cause and effect in the light of the role of the speaker; examining the academic argument that content expressed by public figures of authority have a higher impact, in particular in the context of the digital media ecosystem, with a social media dominance

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The highly discussed controversy around hate speech appears to have culminated in a global discussion, where the opposing sides have found themselves getting closer to each other after an initial deconstruction of the elements of their argumentations This process has been fuelled by the massive changes in public and political communication in the ‘social media age’. The important aspects of the new approaches to hate speech will be highlighted by representative recent documents, a result of a global (UN) or regional (CoE) consensus to address this issue Reactions to this new trend will be investigated in both academic theories and arguments and the paper concludes by exploring these arguments in the light of existing jurisprudence and scrutinises the cause and effect relationship between speech and action, when the speaker is a person of authority

THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL DOCUMENTS

RECENT PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES ON HOW TO TACKLE HATE

Social censorship31

Cause and effect

CONCLUSIONS