Power to the people and common sense. Is defining undefined terms necessary for success?

“Where is the commitment, where is the policy and where is the concern of the users?” Rui Gomes, Head of the Education and Training Division of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe (CoE), speaks about the responsibility of online social portals towards hate speech. Activists from the Advisory Council on Youth, the joint committee of the youth organizations in the CoE, decided to be the ones to shoulder it. They advocate for recognition of the online world as a space where Human Rights are respected and raise awareness among online users about the problem. The campaign is now running or being actively initiated in 38 member states of the CoE, having a network of over 70 online activists. The No Hate Speech Movement European Campaign conference took place between 7 and 9 November 2013 in Strasbourg. “Today is a crucial day, to see all these people from all our Member States and developing the campaign as such is very rewarding”, says Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, Deputy Secretary General of the CoE.

The strong belief of the people participating in the conference that it is necessary to act is overwhelming. Just next to this enthusiasm however are also challenges. “There are a lot of legal opinions and discussion about the legal relationship between […] freedom of expression and the right to live free from discrimination and how the two engage with each other”, says Gavan Titley from the National University of Ireland. In his view hate speech is related not only to “speech” but to all forms of communication and media: The written word, images, videos, etc. According to Mr. Titley it’s not a priority to find a definition of hate speech as it doesn’t intend to affect the notion of freedom of speech, but rather work against bullying of people due to their belonging to certain group or category.

Nevertheless, the challenge is still there: Whereas some examples of hate speech online seem to be obvious, others are balancing on a blurry line between opinions that are merely critical and opinions that are discriminatory. Also, not all pictures, words or videos are equally explicit, but contain a discriminating message between the lines. When hate speech is less obvious, common sense must be the judge for now as reflection continues. Regardless of definitions and laws there is another major role of this ‘grassroots movement’: To support those who experienced online discrimination, especially if they could not put their feelings into words, or were not aware of their rights to stand up against it. Since the campaign is having several different objectives and touches variety of levels, its success will have to be measured accordingly to each of them.

Katarzyna Mortoń, board member of European Youth Press