The Legal Regulation of Hate Speech on the Internet

Iglezakis, Ioannis

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-64955-9_15

Ioannis Iglezakis⁵

3174 Accesses
2 Citations

Abstract

The Internet with its unique ability of communication of one-to-many and many-to-many and its potential for anonymous and mobile interaction has become the new frontier for the dissemination of hate speech. To deal with this issue, many countries have enacted legislation criminalizing hate speech, but international legal acts have also been introduced for the harmonization of national legislations. Τhis chapter will engage in a detailed presentation of the regulations of hate speech on the Internet, on an international level, and will furthermore explore its conflict with the right to freedom of expression.

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Notes

1.
See Johnson and Post (1996), pp. 1367 et seq,; Reidenberg (1996).
2.
According to the famous quote of Eric Schmidt, “The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn’t understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.”
3.
See Fleishman (2000).
4.
Balkin (2008).
5.
See Andrew Murray (2013), p. 135.
6.
See Banks (2010), pp. 233–239.
7.
Anti-Defamation League (2000).
8.
Digital Hate and Terrorism Project (2011).
9.
Digital Terrorism and Hate Report (2015).
10.
See ECRI Report (2015).
11.
See UNESCO (2015), p. 13.
12.
See UNESCO, ibid, p. 14.
13.
See, e.g., https://consciousawarenessforall.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/View-Archived-Pages/.
14.
UNESCO (2015), 14.
15.
See Hasine and Galperin (2015).
16.
Recommendation No. R (97) 20 of the Council of Europe.
17.
ECtHR, Gündüz v. Turkey, No. 35071/97, § 40; Erbakan v. Turkey, No 59405/00, § 56.
18.
ECtHR, Sürek v. Turkey(no. 1)[GC], no.26682/95, § 62.
19.
See Weber (2009), p. 3.
20.
The MANDOLA project is aimed at monitoring the spread and penetration of online hate-related speech in Europe and in Member States using big-data approaches, providing policy makers with information which can be used to combat online hate speech, and citizens with tools to deal with online hate, transferring best practices among Member States and creating a reporting infrastructure which will connect citizens with police authorities.
21.
See D4.1: FAQ on responding to on-line hate speech, p. 20, online available at: http://mandola-project.eu/m/filer_public/1a/af/1aaf50d3-8a38-40f4-b299-9c343f16cea1/mandola-d41.pdf.
22.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-safety/controversial-harmful-and-hateful-speech-on-facebook/574430655911054/.
23.
Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online; see also European Commission – Press release: European Commission and IT Companies announce Code of Conduct on illegal online hate speech, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-1937_en.htm.
24.
See above fn. 15.
25.
https://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/activities/gpr/en/recommendation_n6/Rec%206%20en.pdf.
26.
https://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/activities/GPR/EN/Recommendation_N15/REC-15-2016-015-ENG.pdf.
27.
OJ L 185/5, 24.7.1996.
28.
OJ L 328/55, 6.12.2008.
29.
See https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/185/signatures?p_auth=61ZhEtVX.
30.
See Banks, ibid at 236.
31.
Council of Europe, Treaty No. 189, 28.1.2003; for details see https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/189.
32.
See MANDOLA (2016).
33.
See, ibid, p. 11.
34.
See, ibid, p. 12.
35.
See, ibid, p. 13.
36.
ECtHR, Handyside v. The United Kingdom, 1976, Application no. 5493/72, §49; Lingens v. Austria, 1986; Sener v. Turkey, 2000; Thoma v. Luxembourg, 2001; Maronek v. Slovakia, 2001; Dichand and others v. Austria, 2002.
37.
Macovei (2004), p. 17.
38.
ECtHR, Handyside v. the U.K., ibid.
39.
ECtHR, Sunday Times v. U.K., 26.4.1979.
40.
ECtHR, Gündüz v. Turkey, No. 35071/97, § 40; Sürek v. Turkey (no. 1)[GC], no.26682/95, § 62.
41.
ECtHR, Jersild v. Denmark, § 35.
42.
See http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS_Hate_speech_ENG.pdf.
43.
ECtHR, PavelIvanov v. Russia, 20.2.2007.
44.
ECtHR, Glimmerveen and Hagenbeek v. the Netherlands, 11.10.1979.
45.
ECtHR, Le Pen v. France, 20.4.2010; Jersild v. Denmark, 23.9.1994; Soulas and Others v. France, 10.7.2008; Feret v. Belgium, 16.7.2009.
46.
ECtHR, Garaudy v. France, 24.6.2003; M’Bala v. France, 20.10.2015.
47.
ECtHR, Noorwood v. the U.K., 16.11.2004.
48.
ECtHR, I.A.v. Turkey, 13.9.2005; Erbakan v. Turkey, 6.7.2006.
49.
ECtHR, Communist Party of Germany v. the Federal Republic of Germany, 20.7.1957.
50.
ECtHR, Surek v. Turkey (no. 1), 8.7.1999.
51.
ECtHR, Vejdeland and Others v. Sweden, 9.2.2012.
52.
ECtHR, Leroy v. France, 2.10.2008; Lehideux and Isorni v. France, 23.9.1998.
53.
ECtHR, Dink v. Turkey, 14.9.2010.
54.
ECtHR, Faber v. Hungary, 24.7.2012.
55.
ECtHR, Otegi Mondragon v. Spain, 15.3.2011.
56.
ECtHR, AhmetYildirim v. Turkey, 18.10.2012, no. 3111/10.
57.
ECtHR, op. cit., § 67.
58.
ECtHR, Willem v. France, no 10883/05.
59.
ECtHR, op. cit., § 36.
60.
ECtHR, Mouvement raëlien suisse v. Switzerland, Νο. 16354/06.
61.
ECtHR, op. cit, § 68.
62.
ECtHR, op. cit, § 69.
63.
ECtHR, Delfi AS v. Estonia, 16.6.2015.
64.
ECtHR, Magyar TartalomszolgáltatókEgyesülete and Index.hu Zrt v. Hungary, 02.02.2016.
65.
Article 1 (1) of Law 4285/2014.
66.
ECtHR, Perinçek v. Switzerland, No 27510/08.
67.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/31/facebook-youtube-twitter-microsoft-eu-hate-speech-code.
68.
See https://www.hatebase.org/.
69.
https://www.internet-signalement.gouv.fr.
70.
http://www.nohatespeechmovement.org/hate-speech-watch.
71.
See https://thesentinelproject.org/2013/03/25/introducing-hatebase-the-worlds-largest-online-database-of-hate-speech/.
72.
See http://www.coe.int/en/web/freedom-expression/study-filtering-blocking-and-take-down-of-illegal-content-on-the-internet.
73.
See http://www.coe.int/en/web/human-rights-rule-of-law/-/rules-for-blocking-and-removal-of-illegal-content-must-be-transparent-and-proportionate.

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Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Ioannis Iglezakis

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Department of Law, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Tatiana-Eleni Synodinou
School of Law, European University Campus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Philippe Jougleux
School of Law, European University Campus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Christiana Markou
School of Law, European University Campus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Thalia Prastitou

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Iglezakis, I. (2017). The Legal Regulation of Hate Speech on the Internet. In: Synodinou, TE., Jougleux, P., Markou, C., Prastitou, T. (eds) EU Internet Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64955-9_15

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64955-9_15
Published: 11 November 2017
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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