Newsroom

[editar plantilla]

Anti-Gypsyism hatred among the most commonly reported grounds of hate speech with 12,2 % of reported cases [editar]

European Commission publishes results of the 4th Monitoring round of online hate speech

04/02/2019
FSG Igualdad y Lucha contra la discriminación

SHARE
Anti-Gypsyism hatred among the most commonly reported grounds of hate speech with 12,2 % of reported casesFor the first time the grounds for reporting hatred include anti-Gypsyism hatred as a separate category, following an advocacy action undertook by FSG. 12.2% of all cases reported in Europe are cases of illegal anti-Gypsy hate speech, that is, 527 cases. Given that these are extreme hate speeches, we can conclude that anti-Gypsyism unfortunately remains a reality.

On February 4, the Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Vera Jourová, presented the results of the fourth evaluation of the Code of Conduct to combat illegal hate speech on the Internet and social networks, in which the FSG has participated as specialized organization and trusted flagger.

The 4th evaluation on the Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online confirms continuous progress on the swift removal of illegal hate speech. “While the fight against hate speech and toxic narratives online needs to be continued and further strengthened, the Code of conduct signed between the IT companies and the European Commission proves to be an effective tool to face the challenge” said the Commissioner.

In order to establish trends, 39 organisations from 26 Member States have taken part in this monitoring exercise sending notifications relating to illegal hate speech to the IT companies taking part in the Code of Conduct over a period of 6 weeks (5 November to 14 December 2018).

In Spain, notifications were submitted by Oberaxe (284 cases), FELGTB (98 cases) and the Fundacion Secretariado Gitano (FSG) (109). 69% of the content notified by the FSG was remmoved, which is a good impact index. However, overall in Spain, IT companies removed only 59.7% of the content notified to them. Spain is the second country that has reported the most cases (491), only behind Italy (632).

For the first time the grounds for reporting hatred include anti-Gypsyism hatred as a separate category, following an advocacy action undertook by FSG. 12.2% of all cases reported in Europe are cases of illegal anti-Gypsy hate speech, that is, 527 cases. Given that these are extreme hate speeches, we can conclude that anti-Gypsyism unfortunately remains a reality.

Overall, IT companies removed 71.7 % of the content notified to them. This is estimated to be satisfactory removal rates, as some of the content flagged by users could relate to content that is not illegal. In order to protect freedom of speech only content deemed illegal should be removed.

Facebook, YouTube and Instagram show a high response capacity, since they have removed 82%, 85% and 70% of the content respectively. Twitter, on the other hand, continues to be the network with the lowest response, with only 42% of flagged content removed, even less than in the previous round. As for the countries, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Lithuania and Slovenia achieve a higher rate of removal (between 90 and 100% of content removed).

Xenophobia (including anti-migrant hatred) is the most commonly reported grounds of hate speech (17%) followed by sexual orientation (15.6%), anti-Muslim hatred (13 %) and anti –Gypsyism hatred. The results, which are in line with the trends in December 2017, confirm the predominance of racist hatred against ethnic minorities, migrants and refugees, with the important novelty that we now know how many of these hate messages are directed against Roma people (527 cases).

 From the FSG we very much value the collaboration with DG Justice and the High Level Group against racism and xenophobia of the EU, which has allowed us to participate in these monitoring exercises and include the category of anti-Gypsyism in their reports. We consider it key to give visibility to the reality of anti-Gypsysm hatred with reliable data, due to the serious effects it has on the persistence of stereotypes and prejudices, and for the damage it causes to the dignity of Roma people. Thanks to this report we now have a significant sample of the dimension of this problem, and its European dimension.

 

The results of the report will be published on this website this week:

https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/item-detail.cfm?item_id=54300

Related documents

BACK TO MAIN ‘NEWS’ PAGE