Hate Speech: Can We All Agree On A Definition?

Published date28 September 2020
Subject MatterMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Technology, Advertising, Marketing & Branding, Social Media, New Technology
Law FirmCharles Russell Speechlys LLP
AuthorMs Olivia Crane

Following mounting pressure, including an advertising boycott of Facebook earlier this year, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have agreed to create a unified definition of harmful content across all their social media platforms.This will likely provide welcome clarity and consistency for all acceptable use and content policies across the tech industry.

Online content sharing platforms have fostered the age old battle between the right to freedom of expression and the restriction of illegal 'hate speech'. Social media has enhanced our ability to communicate across borders and interact immediately over politics, fashion and anything in between. However, it has also facilitated the dissemination of hateful and often harmful speech to a mass audience at the touch of a button. Large tech companies have often taken the view that they are not responsible for the content their users create, they provide the infrastructure and it is up to individuals to provide the content. Over the last few years, there has been pressure for technology companies, particularly Facebook and Twitter, to take accountability for the harmful content shared over their platforms and to recognised the consequences of their inability to act. This has lead to content policies and acceptable use policies, which form an important basis of any online technology that facilitates user generated content, to state that company's will take down hate speech, and other forms of harmful content published on their platforms. But defining harmful content has been more difficult with platforms having different thresholds for what constitutes online harm.

In 2008, Facebook took down an image of a new mother breastfeeding her...

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