p2pnet - rss feed: Fighting hate on the Net
p2pnet.net News:-The 55 OSCE states must act against “hate speech and racist propaganda” on the Net, says French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.
At a two-day Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe international meeting which started yesterday in Paris, Barnier told the more than 300 participants the increase in acts motivated by intolerance in France showed that preventive measures, while necessary, aren’t enough.
“We have to be able to act directly against those that commit these crimes,” he said. “On our own territory, we have decided to take measures against these activities, by toughening the laws dealing with crimes motivated by racism, anti-Semitism or xenophobia, by holding Internet providers responsible for their sites, and by systematically searching for hate speech in the media.
“However, one State can only do so much. The Internet does not have any boundaries. The OSCE must become an ‘observatory to identify and help propagate best practices, and, based on this work, it must also act as a ‘laboratory’ where, for example, a code of conduct could be developed.”
The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, also urged the Organization’s participating States to make it clear that they were serious about tackling hate speech on the Internet.
“They should undertake measures to strengthen international co-operation and mutual assistance between law enforcement authorities to ensure that effective action can be taken against the dissemination of racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic material via the Internet,” he said.
At the same time, Passy cautioned against over-regulating the “incredible diversity provided by the Internet or limiting the free exchange of ideas and information”.
The best approach is self-regulation or co-regulation through developing codes of conduct, and through increasing users’ and providers’ awareness and sensitivity to the problem, he added.
June 17th, 2004 at 9:16 pm
Hate is bad but lack of freedome is worse. Trying to stop web sites that show different ideals than your own is a worse crime that than the hate mongers that they are trying to stop.
Freedom does have a price!
David L from the USA
June 17th, 2004 at 11:33 pm
absolutely, 100% agree! just what the hell is a hate-crime anyway? are there any crimes committed as loving acts? a crime is a crime! just stiffen the penalties for all crimes. if i post derogatory comments about a certain minority group, no one has to read it. even if they did, would my comments induce them to commit acts that would have otherwise gone uncommitted? hmm…let me test that out…
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getmerich@sendnow.com
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November 1st, 2004 at 2:16 pm
No chance!