Hate+Speech+Research+Report

//Hate Speech and the Internet//
Hate speech is not a new phenomenon, but its ability to be published on the web gives it a new outlet in today's society. For the general public, this problem can be dangerous, painful, and unfortunate, but for educators it possesses even more implications. As educators, we must ensure that our students to do spend their valuable class time perusing such waste, and that if they do encounter such hatred, they should know how to handle the situation effectively and with as little damage as possible.

Many people wonder why hate speech cannot be banned from all publications, including the Internet, especially when other ares of the world are doing so. For example, the Council of Europe has adopted an amendment that protects against "any written material, any image, or any other representation of ideas or theories which advocates, promotes, or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, color, descent, national or ethnic origin, as well as religion, if not used as a pretext for any of these factors." Though this sounds like a simple solution, it is not applicable in America where the First Amendment protects free speech and freedom of the press.

The Supreme Court, which decides on Constitutional matters, has been completely silent on the matter of on-line hate speech, but has decided upon other matters in the past related to other forms of publication.Most recently, the cases of Wisconsin v. Mitchell (1993) and R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, Minnesota (1992) questioned the government's power when it comes to hate speech. In Wisconsin v. Mitchell, Todd Mitchell was given double the usual sentencing time after he led an attack on another boy while using the words "There goes a white boy; go get him." The Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Mitchell's sentence, but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the original ruling. In their final statement, they expressed that while the government can not control the thoughts of an individual, any motives that lead to violence can be taken into consideration when sentencing said individual.

In R.A.V. v. St. Paul, Minnesota, R.A.V. was convicted for burning a cross on the front lawn of an African-American family. His crime was a violation of the Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance in St. Paul that stated symbols known to provoke "anger, alarm, or resentment" because of race, religion, or gender were prohibited. The Supreme Court found the Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance unconstitutional because it undermined free speech rights and could be used to target those individuals who wanted to use offensive material to bring about a positive change.

While the Supreme Court walks the fine like between upholding constitutional rights and preventing violence, Internet hate speech crimes are being committed across the country. In Florida, high school student Catherine Evans cyberbullied a teacher on Facebook. Using the online networking site, she created a group where students could express their "feelings of hatred" towards the teacher. Evans was not supported in her efforts and soon removed the group, but the trouble did not stop there. Evans was suspended from school for three days because of "disruptive behavior" and "bullying/cyberbullying towards a staff member." She was also dropped from her Advanced Placement classes, and placed in lower ranking honors courses. With support from the ACLU, Evans is now suing the school for ruining her reputation.

In an even more tragic case, a young girl, Megan, was committed suicide because she was bullied by the mother of a former friend. The mother created a fake MySpace profile and pretended to be a cute, sixteen year-old boy named Josh Evans who was homeschooled near Megan. "Josh" began by complimenting Megan, but it turned into insulting messages and comments where he called her "slut," "depressive," and "fat." He threatened to quit talking to Megan because she was not always kind to her other friends. Megan, who had a history of low self-esteem and was taking medication, cracked under the insults and hung herself in her closet. Her mother found her on October 6th. The mother who bullied Megan acted as she did because she was trying to learn was Megan was saying about her daughter. She has not been charged with any crime, and the community is not pushing for laws that would allow the police to intercede in cases of child harassment. Megan's mother had actually called the police to find out if Josh Evans was real after she noticed som red flags in his profile, but the police said there was nothing they could do.

With so much hate in the world, what can parents and educators do to protect children? At a meeting for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United States gorvernment gave their ten steps to fighting hate speech online. The list was:

1. Participating states should stake action to ensure that the Internet remains and open and public forum for the airing of all viewpoints, and to foster access to the Internet in both schools and homes.

2. Participating states should vigorously investigate and, where appropriate, fully prosecute bias-motivated violence and criminal threats of violenceon the Internet.

3. The OSCE representative on Freedom of the Media should study whether laws prohibiting bias-motivated speech are being enforced in a discriminatory or selective manner, or are being misused in any nation as a means of silencing government critics and suppressing political dissent.

4. Participating states should study the effectiveness of laws regulating Internet content, specifically with regard to their effect on racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic crimes.

5. Analytically rigorous studies should be conducted of the possible relationship betwen racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic speech on the Internet and the commission of bias-motivated crimes.

6. Participating states should collect information concerning incidents of bias-motivated crimes and publish a report on an annual basis summarizing this idea.

7. Participating states should support the establishment of programs to educate children about bias-motivated expression they may encounter on the Internet. Materials from successful educational programs should be widely disseminated.

8. Participating states and ISPs should take steps to increase parental awareness of widely available filtering software that enables parents to exercise greater supervision and control over their children's use of the Internet.

9. NGOs should continue and increase their efforts to monitor the Internet for, share, and publicize their findings of racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic content.

10. Participating states should train investigators and prosecutors on how to address bias-motivated crimes on the Internet.

The Ant-Defamation League give more adivce. They believe it is most important that parents and educators monitor what children are looking at, talk to kids about the availability and falsity of hate speech, and invite kids to have an honest dialogue about the hurtful content they find online. They also suggest that there are numerous hate-filters parents and educators can install on personal and classroom machines to minimize the amount of hate speech children come into contact with.

Hate speech is pervasive on the Internet. Since there are no laws mandating what can and cannot be posted on the Internet in the United States, educators must be vigilant when students are accessing the world wide web. Keep abreast of the changes in online hate speech and showing children that hate speech is never acceptable may be the best ways to protect our youth and promote a better online community. Sources: 1. Firstamendmentcenter.org 2. Ubuntuforums.org  3. Abcnews.com  4. [|www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/hatespeech.htm]  5. [|ww.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2002/11/56294]  <span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">6. 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[|www.adl.org/issue_education/parents_guide_hate_net.asp#1]