I sit down with Prof. dr. Tarlach McGonagle to dissect hate speech - a longstanding challenge for state regulation, and a new dilemma for internet platforms. We discuss the complexities of defining and regulating hate speech, the proliferation of such speech on social media, and whose job it is to fight back against it.

Further reading:

Professor Tarlach McGonagle is a co-rapporteur of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Combating Hate Speech, tasked with drafting a recommendation for adoption by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. For more on the Committee of Experts’ progress, click here.
Tarlach’s expert paper, “The Council of Europe against online hate speech: Conundrums and challenges,” informed much of my own thinking about hate speech. It’s available here.
Want to read the cases we talked about today? Click here for R. v. Keegstra, the Canadian case I mentioned which dealt with antisemitic hate speech. The European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in Vejdeland and others v. Sweden, concerning homophobic leaflets in school lockers, can be read here, while its decision in Norwood v. the United Kingdom (about the Islamophobic poster and Article 17 of the European Convention on Human Rights) is available here.
For a primer on hate speech on social media, check out the Council on Foreign Relations’ “Hate Speech on Social Media: Global Comparisons”.
You can also read the submission Tarlach and I co-authored for the #SAIFE project right here.
For further reading on human rights in the digital age, take a look at the #DigitalShelvesInitiative, compiled by the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research Working Group on Human Rights in the Digital Age. Tarlach is a Co-Chair of the Working Group, and the reading lists cover freedom of expression, media and internet freedoms; privacy and data protection; and AI/machine learning and the regulation of technology.
Connect with Tarlach on Twitter for more on his ongoing projects.