"In India, religious texts, social customs, rituals, and everyday cultural practices legitimise the use of hate speech against marginalised caste groups. Notions of "purity" of “upper-caste” groups, and conversely of "pollution" of “lower-caste” groups, have made the latter subject to discri
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mination, violence and dehumanisation. These dynamics invariably manifest online, with social media platforms becoming sites of caste discrimination and humiliation. This report explores two research questions. First, what are the specific contours of caste-hate speech and abuse online? Semi-structured interviews with 12 scholars and activists belonging to Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi (DBA) groups show that marginalised groups regularly face hate and harassment based on their caste. In addition to the overt hate, DBA individuals and groups are often targeted with abuse for availing reservations – a constitutionally mandated right. More covert forms of hate and abuse are also prevalent: trolls mix caste names and words from different languages together so that their comments appear meaningless to individuals who are not keenly aware of the local context. Such hateful expression often emerges as a reaction from “upper-caste” groups to DBA resistance and social justice movements. Our respondents reported that the hateful expression can sometimes silence caste-marginalised groups and individuals, exclude them from conversations, and adversely impact their physical and mental well-being. The second question we explore is how popular social media platforms and online spaces moderate caste-hate speech and abuse. We analysed the community guidelines, policies and transparency reports of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Clubhouse. We find that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube incorporated "caste" as a protected characteristic in their hate speech and harassment policies only in the last two or three years – many years after they entered Indian and South Asian markets – showing a disregard for the regional contexts of their users. Even after these policy changes, many platforms – whose forms for reporting harmful content list gender and race – still do not list caste. Social media companies should radically increase their investment and capacity in understanding regional contexts and languages; they must focus on the dynamics of casteist hate and abuse. They will need to collaborate with a diverse set of DBA activists to ensure that their community guidelines effectively tackle overt, covert and hyper -local forms of caste-hate speech and abuse, and that their implementation and reporting processes match these policy commitments." (Eexecutive summary)
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"El presente informe aborda la problemática de los contenidos discriminatorios difundidos a través de los medios de comunicación en el Perú, con especial énfasis en la discriminación étnico-racial a través de los programas de radio y televisión, así como de medios escritos, a la luz de los
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compromisos que plantea el Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, de la jurisprudencia interamericana, constitucional y la doctrina más reciente sobre la materia. El objetivo de este análisis es establecer una agenda de compromisos a nivel de políticas públicas y desarrollos normativos que permitan revertir la problemática identificada." (Resumen ejecutivo, página 4)
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"De acuerdo con los estudios de análisis de medios reseñados, se confirma con claridad que las poblaciones que sufren más discriminación de manera sistemática en los medios son las comunidades indígenas y afroperuanas. Por un lado, la población indígena es comúnmente representada en asociac
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ión con escenarios de pobreza, violencia, ignorancia, torpeza y poco atractivo físico; en tanto los afroperuanos, además de ser menos visibilizados, son mostrados como objeto de burla o son estereotipados con facilidad, encasillándolos con temas como la vitalidad sexual, la afinidad por la danza o el deporte, y dejando de lado las características individuales de cada persona, así como otros posibles logros o aportes a la sociedad. Todo ello es mostrado en contraste con el protagonismo de personajes blancos, que suelen vincularse con modelos de éxito, autoridad, veracidad, etc. En esa línea, en los programas informativos opera una discriminación por invisibilización; mientras que en los programas de espectáculos opera la perpetuación de representaciones y estereotipos asociados a raza, procedencia social, sexo, entre otros." (Conclusiones y recomendaciones, página 119)
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"Aims to map the implication of the political economy dynamics of the media on citizens’ right to media from the perspective of citizens, in particular those who are vulnerable and weak(ened). Due to the effect of the contemporary political economy of media in Indonesia, the premise of equal citiz
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ens’ right to media has not yet been met. Business-powered media tend to prioritise the concerns of the majority over those of the minority. Since the existence of media remains vital to the society, it is essential that the media (industry) should first serve the interests of society, in particular in providing for the needs of minority groups and the vulnerable. The report provides four case studies from vulnerable groups (Ahmadiyya, Diffable, LGBT and Women-Children), in order to map the bigger picture on citizens’ right to media." (CIPG website)
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"There is immense difficulty in regulating hate speech on the ground of ethnicity when ethnicity is a prime cehicle for political organization and mobilization. On the one hand, substantive (real) equality demands that certain marginalized ethnic gropus be shielded from hate speech in order to have
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any chance of successfully renegotiating and reclaiming the places they have lost in the society. On the other hand, hate speech regulation should not be used as a pretext for perpetuation of ethnic hierarchies and criminalization of dissent. If the solution is not clear, the Ethiopian example at least casts light on the curious tension between the two sides of the equality paradox." (Conclusion, page 377)
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"To summarize a very expansive set of standards and concomitant strategies, it can be said that the three main prongs to the Council of Europe's approach to countering "hate speech" are: (1) the prevention / prohibition / punishment of certain types of expression (e.g., incitement to hatred, racist
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expression); (2) the facilitation and creation of expressive and communicative opportunities for minorities; and relatedly, (3) the promotion of tolerance, understanding, and integroup / intercultural dialogue. By virtue of their agenda-setting and forum-providing capacities, the media are specifically implicated in many of the strategies employed, but in a way that is deferential to their operational autonomy." (Conclusion, page 497)
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"This book offers a rigorous, theory-based, and uniquely comprehensive, analysis of European and international legal standards shaping minorities’ right to freedom of expression. The analysis pays particular attention to the instrumental role played by traditional and new forms of media in ensurin
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g that the right to freedom of expression of persons belonging to minorities is effective in practice. The relevant international legal framework is set out in detail, including a careful examination of the relationship between generalist and minority-specific international human rights instruments. Due attention is paid to the historical circumstances in which key instruments were developed and the contemporary context in which they are now being interpreted. The analysis is also informed by an awareness of institutional and political dynamics. All of this forms the basis for the book’s central objective: to mount a critical evaluation of the existing international legal framework governing freedom of expression for minorities, while drawing on theoretical insights gained from human rights scholarship and communications science. The first major focus of the evaluation is the regulation and restriction of expression to protect minority rights, in which issues such as pluralism, tolerance and “hate speech” feature centrally. Its second major focus, the regulation and facilitation of expression to promote minority rights, explores cultural and linguistic rights and media access questions." (Back cover)
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"Der Band versammelt Studien zur Rolle der Medien bei der Integration von Minderheiten in den klassischen Einwanderungsländern USA und Kanada und vergleicht die Situation in Nordamerika mit ihrem Schwerpunkt auf Diversity (Vielfalt) mit der Situation in den neuen Einwanderungsländern Europas, wobe
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i Deutschland im Zentrum steht. Abschließend untersucht der Band die Frage, was Deutschland von den Erfahrungen in Nordamerika lernen kann." (Klappentext)
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