Regulating Internet Hate: A Flying Pig?

• Author: Natalie Alkiviadou
• Pages: 216-228

2016

Natalie Alkiviadou

216

3

Regulating Internet Hate

A Flying Pig?

by Natalie Alkiviadou*

© 2016 Natalie Alkiviadou

Everybody may disseminate this ar ticle by electronic m eans and make it available for downloa d under the terms and

conditions of the Digital P eer Publishing Licence (DPPL). A copy of the license text may be obtain ed at http://nbn-resolving.

de/urn:nbn:de:0009-dppl-v3-en8.

Recommended citation: Nata lie Alkiviadou, Regulating Internet Hate: A Flying Pig?, 7 (2016) JIPIT EC 216 para 1.

Keywords: Internet hate; regulation; hate speech; Cybercrime Convention; freedom of expression

tion, the paper seeks to provide an overview of the

current state of affairs in the realm of regulating hate

but also to demonstrate that such regulation, as oc-

curring to date, is dysfunctional, predominantly due

to the vast divergence of US-European approaches

to the issues of free expression both on and off line.

It is argued that due to the very nature of the inter-

net as a borderless and global entity, this normative

divergence cannot be overcome so long as traditional

approaches to the issue of regulation continue to be

taken. The paper’s analysis will emanate from the

premise that there exists a need to strike an equi-

table balance between the freedom of expression on

the one hand and the freedom from discrimination

on the other.

Abstract: This paper will assess the regula-

tion of the internet in the ambit of hate speech ex-

pressed digitally through the internet. To do so, it will

provide a definitional framework of hate speech, an

overview of the internet’s role in the ambit of hate

speech and consider the challenges in legally regu-

lating online hate speech through a discussion of rel-

evant case-law as well as the Additional Protocol to

the Cybercrime Convention. The jurisprudential anal-

ysis will allow for a comparison of the stances ad-

opted by the ECtHR and national courts of European

countries on the one hand, and courts of the United

States on the other, in the sphere under consider-

ation. By looking at regional and national case-law

and the initiative of the Council of Europe in the form

of the Additional Protocol to the Cybercrime Conven-

A. Introduction

1

The internet is one of the most powerful

contemporary tools used by individuals and groups

to express ideas and opinions and receive and impart

information.1 It “magnies the voice and multiplies

the information within reach of everyone who has

1 The number of Internet users for 2015 was 3,185,996,155:

[Accessed 28th June 2016].

access to it.”2 Notwithstanding the positive aspects

of this development in the realm of free speech and

the exchange of ideas, the internet also provides

a platform for the promotion and dissemination

of hate.3 In fact, the internet has seen a sharp

rise in the number of extreme-right websites and

2 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion

and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and

Expression, David Kaye (22 May 2015) A/HRC/29/32, para

11.

3 Fernne Brennan, ‘Legislating against Internet Race Hate’

(2009) 18 Information and Communications Technology Law

2, 123.