Hate Speech on Social Media: Implications of private regulation and governance gaps

Sammanfattning: Hate speech on social media hardly remains unnoticed. Contents involving hateful messages vary from “kill a Jew day” to “kick a ginger day” and could target anyone irrespective of their status, identity, location and so forth. Even when hate speech is not materialized into a hate-motivated crime, the damage is done – victims are being labeled, marginalised and exposed to negative stereotyping. The overall consequences of online hate can be the dehumanisation of individuals or groups of individuals. The need for proper strategies to tackle hate speech on social media is unquestionable. The core focus of the thesis is not to find a solution to the challenge, but rather to identify central problems that have contributed to the formation of the existing reality. To unrave the contributing factors, a holistic analysis of both international human rights principles regarding hate speech and the practical application of those standards is necessary. Accordingly, this thesis examines whether the protections provided against hate speech are a sufficient response to the challenge arising from the specific nature of expression on social media. The distinctive characteristics of social media play a key role and provide an ideal venue to target and reach a wide audience across the globe. Under those circumstances, the decisive role is not played by states or international institutions, but by social media platforms, that are predominantly private institutions. States, that are the central duty-bearers to respect, to protect and to fulfil human rights, in fact, have a very limited opportunity to influence the process of regulating expression on social media. This is due to a number of factors. Complications related to the technical infrastructure of social media platforms, applicable legislation, the definition of different concepts are a few examples of the factors that hinder advancement of protection of human rights. Furthermore, the unwillingness of states to collaborate is an additional factor that contributes to insufficient regulation of hate speech on social media and it is questionable whether a problem can be dealt with without collective efforts. The conclusions drawn in this paper is the result of a critical assessment of the current international legal framework and the self-regulation mechanism adopted by the private actors. The disconnect between the international human rights framework and its implementation results in government gaps – a dangerous trend that can result in arbitrariness and selective application of different rules. Thus, it creates a risk of either excessive regulation, or leaving a significant part of society unprotected against exposure to hateful expression. This thesis further provides some proposals for the future consideration regarding the possible solution of the problem.