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Resolution 2144 (2017)
Ending cyberdiscrimination and online hate
1. The internet is an exceptional
tool and resource that has revolutionised many aspects of our lives
and opened up powerful new channels of expression. Freedom of expression
is one of the most important pillars of a democratic society, and
it is crucial to preserve it, including on the internet. The internet
must never become a space in which censorship drowns out dissenting
voices, or where private companies dictate which and whose views
can be heard.
2. At the same time, countless individuals are targeted every
day by online hate. More and more first, second or third generation
migrant children, as well as adopted and minority children, report
experiences of racism as part of their everyday life. A person’s
real or supposed sex, colour, ethnicity, nationality, religion, migration
status, sexual orientation, gender identity, political or other
opinion, disability or other status may all serve as pretexts to
make inflammatory and hateful statements, to harass and abuse a
target, to stalk, threaten or incite psychological or physical violence
against them. Hate speech is not limited to racism and xenophobia: it
may also take the form of sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, misogyny,
homophobia and other forms of hate speech directed against specific
groups or individuals. Such forms of behaviour, which are not accepted offline,
are equally unacceptable online. Just like the face-to-face world,
the internet must provide space to be critical, without providing
space for hate speech, including incitement to violence.
3. The European Court of Human Rights has found that the protection
of freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human
Rights (ETS No. 5) does not extend to racist or xenophobic speech.
Other international instruments, such as the International Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the
Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime, concerning
the criminalisation of acts of racist or xenophobic nature committed
through computer systems (ETS No. 189), also address racist and
xenophobic speech but do not cover all forms of hate speech; moreover,
not all international standards have been universally accepted.
However, although a single, harmonised definition of hate speech
is not applicable across all Council of Europe member States, definitions
of hate speech and discrimination exist in their domestic law. National
legislation may thus already allow for effective measures to be
taken against some forms of online hate, but it does not always
cover all such behaviour or capture new forms of communication effectively.
These gaps in the law must be addressed in order to provide effective
protection against online hate.
4. Online hate is a reflection of hate in our societies. It is
crucial therefore that strategies to eliminate hate in the online
environment acknowledge and tackle hatred and intolerance in people’s
hearts and minds. In parallel, however, such strategies must also
recognise and address the specificities of the online environment and
of people’s behaviour online, such as the scope for instant and
broad dissemination of internet content, the ability to remain anonymous
and the uninhibited interactions this can foster, and the difficulties
inherent in taking legal action, where this is needed, in cases
that frequently cross international borders.
5. Strategies to prevent and combat online hate must also recognise
that the internet has become an omnipresent and indispensable communication
tool, from which people cannot simply walk away in order to avoid
abuse, especially where their job requires them to be in the public
eye.
6. There is also a need to clarify the responsibility and role
of internet intermediaries that provide the tools, forums and platforms
on which internet communications occur, as regards preventing and
combating online hate. In this respect, the Assembly emphasises
that legislation in member States must be guided by the case law
of the European Court of Human Rights.
7. In the light of the above, and bearing in mind the relevant
recommendations made in its Resolution
2069 (2015) on recognising and preventing neo-racism,
the Assembly calls on the Council of Europe member States:
7.1. in view of the international
dimension of online communications, to:
7.1.1. ratify, if
they have not already done so, the Convention on Cybercrime (ETS
No. 185) and its Additional Protocol, concerning the criminalisation
of acts of racist or xenophobic nature committed through computer
systems;
7.1.2. work together to ensure that harmonised and comprehensive
definitions of hate speech can be applied in cases of online hate,
and draw in this respect on the recommendations of the European
Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in its General
Policy Recommendation No. 15 on combating hate speech;
7.2. with regard to national legislation, to:
7.2.1. ensure,
in conformity with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights,
that their national law allows for the effective prosecution of
online hate speech, while fully respecting freedom of expression
and in particular the freedom to criticise the actions of public
authorities;
7.2.2. ensure that national legislation covers all forms of online
incitement to violence against a person or a group of persons, bullying,
harassment, threats and stalking, so that these can be effectively
prosecuted under national law;
7.2.3. amend national legislation or policy guidelines wherever
necessary to ensure that the full range of characteristics considered
as grounds for protection under discrimination law are taken into
account in online hate cases, including sex, colour, ethnicity,
nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, political
or other opinion, disability or other status;
7.3. with regard to the enforcement of national legislation,
to:
7.3.1. train police, prosecutors and judges on the seriousness
of all forms of online hate, including online hate speech, bullying,
harassment, threats and stalking;
7.3.2. train and provide clear guidance to police on the need
to record all reported incidents in this area and investigate them
expeditiously and effectively, and on how to do so; such training and
guidance should also explain the avenues of assistance available
to the police where they lack the technical capacity to investigate
themselves;
7.3.3. provide training and clear guidance also to prosecutors
and judges on the ways in which the existing law applies to cases
of online hate;
7.3.4. ensure that victims’ complaints of online hate are taken
seriously and that they receive full support in dealing with its
consequences;
7.3.5. provide instruments to identify online hate and promote
its removal;
7.4. with regard to prevention, education and awareness raising,
to:
7.4.1. raise awareness in society about the extent and
impact of online hate;
7.4.2. recognise that children and young people are particularly
vulnerable to the negative effects of cyberdiscrimination and online
hate and it should thus be ensured that they are educated at an
early age about both the exceptional possibilities and the challenges
of online exchanges; also ensure that online competences are included
as an essential element of school curricula;
7.4.3. launch programmes and support initiatives from civil society
and other relevant actors to encourage responsible use of the internet,
to combat cyberbullying while also helping victims to handle it,
to empower individuals to develop counter-speech and alternative
narratives to online hate speech, re-establish dialogue and de-escalate
online conflicts, and to mobilise networks of and build alliances
among those working to combat online hate;
7.4.4. ensure that such initiatives and programmes are sustainably
funded and designed to have a lasting impact on people’s attitudes
to online hate;
7.4.5. organise regular events to underscore the ongoing need
to combat hate, for example by recognising 22 July as the European
Day for Victims of Hate Crime, as called for by the Assembly in
its Recommendation 2052
(2014) on counteraction to manifestations of neo-Nazism
and right-wing extremism;
7.5. with regard to internet intermediaries, to:
7.5.1. ensure
that the standards on freedom of speech set by the European Convention
on Human Rights and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
are applied to online communications in member States;
7.5.2. encourage internet intermediaries to establish clear and
effective internal processes to deal with notifications regarding
hate speech;
7.5.3. promote efforts by such intermediaries to ensure that
content that amounts to online hate speech, bullying, harassment,
threats or stalking on any of the grounds mentioned in paragraph 7.2.3
above is rapidly removed, without prejudice to the possibility of
taking legal proceedings against its author;
7.5.4. encourage such intermediaries to take online hate speech
seriously and to co-operate closely with the law-enforcement authorities,
while respecting the Convention for the Protection of Individuals
with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (ETS No. 108),
in cases concerning online hate;
7.5.5. establish by law, where this has not already been done,
the responsibility and role of internet intermediaries as regards
the removal of online hate-motivated content, using as far as possible
a notice-and-take-down approach.
8. Finally, the Assembly invites national parliaments to mobilise
against hate speech and all forms of racism and intolerance, in
particular through participating in initiatives such as the No Hate
Parliamentary Alliance developed by the Assembly.