Communications and Media

Free Speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without limitations, whatever a person wants to, to anyone he wants to, under whatever condition. Nowadays freedom of speech is considered a primary human right (Sustein 1995). This right is mentioned in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is also recognized by International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as international human rights law in the following words, the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights).

Importance of Free Speech
Free speech and freedom of media are very important for a running democratic system. Freedom of speech illustrates the level of creativity and achievement in a society, to a certain degree. Without freedom of speech, the creativity of the people and their ability to solve problems are subdued (Cortese 2005). Freedom of speech allows people to express their ideas, arouse powerful emotions, uncover truth, bring radical change and modify the course of history. In the history of humanity, every important and successful struggle comprised of the usage of free speech (Warburton 2009). There are numerous examples of important people in history who used the freedom to speak to promote their ideas which were thought to be primitive during their time.  Who can forget Martin Luther Kings famous speech I Have a Dream about promotion of civil rights which still evokes powerful emotions.

Misuse of Free Speech
As free speech is a critical human right, which serves as an intrinsic good, one cannot restrict it easily. However, absolute liberty of speech allows any person or a crowd to speak ill of other group or a person. It enables an individual or group(s) to abuse another person or group.

It also permits people to curse or comment on the other peoples race, cast, religion, economic condition or physical appearance etc. which might be disrespectful or insulting to the person or group and is wrong, morally and ethically (Fish 1994). The liberty to express opinions and ideas without hindrance and especially without fear of punishment has led people to misuse free speech. People are using free speech as an excuse, if not justification, to degrade and insult the beliefs of others. Freedom of speech is valued because it promotes liberty, justice, and truth but those who are misusing it are creating polar opposites. Increasingly people are actually participating in hate speech rather than free speech which hurts feelings creates tensions and enforces the particular person or group to raise petition against the rival group. Throughout history hate groups have been a part of society. Wherever people from different social, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds live together, there are groups which have a common hatred for those who are different from them. A hate group is defined as an organization or movement that supports aggressive behavior or physical or verbal assault towards individuals belonging to a particular gender, racialreligious group or sexual orientation. Image via  HYPERLINK httpcommons.wikipedia.orgwikiImageAdolf_Hitler.png WikipediaHate speech is a typical group or a person-directed criticism which affects the individuals private issues.

Promotion of Hate Speech
By adopting a variety of paths to promote hate speech, hate mongers are spreading fear, bigotry and hate based on lies and misinformation (Gould 2005). People are engaged in advancing hate speech through different ways such as conversations, casual group discussions, public speeches at community centers, in religious gatherings, before political groups etc, and of course the media on the radio, on television, on websites, in newspapers and pamphlets etc. People converse with each other and spread hatred towards particular groups in the name of free speech through casual group discussions (Gelber 2002). Public speeches are another way through which misusage of free speech is very common. A public speaker with the skill to use the words to brainwash people, addresses masses in public speeches and lures them into developing hatred towards a particular group (Zingo 1998). The media is the strongest platform from where free speech is misused mercilessly. Numerous programs, videos, documentaries, movies are aired on the radio and television to distort the views of the people and arouse hatred in them. When the FBI reported that hate crimes against Hispanics had increased by an astonishing 40 percent between 2003 and 2007 (FBI Hate Crime Statistics, 2003 and 2007), UCLA professor Chon Noriega began to ask whether the media plays a role in the persistence of hate speech and hate crimes. In a pilot study that attempts to quantify hate speech in commercial radio, Noriega tracked language on the Lou Dobbs Show, Savage Nation and the John  Ken Show (Latino Policy and Issues Brief, 209). On these programs he found systematic and extensive use of false facts, flawed argumentation, divisive language, and dehumanizing metaphors that are directed toward specific vulnerable groupswhich results, Noriega argued, in marginalized populations being characterized as a direct threat to the listeners way of life (OGrady).

Newspapers and pamphlets are the cornerstones of print media which serve as the basis of misusing free speech as people write their views using strong language to describe their own judgments without thinking about the results. The most significant and major medium which has led to wide scale misuse of free speech is the internet. Speech has taken a step further through the use of the internet (Butler 1997).

Use of Internet to spread hate speech

Advantages of internet
The Internet is the worlds fastest growing means of telecommunications. It connects people globally, allowing them to share their ideas and thoughts, instantly. It is an inexpensive and unique medium which has the power to reach a mass audience. Its global reach and ease of use makes it a highly effective tool for the people to receive education and access valuable information. However, it is very unfortunate that the very instrument that makes the Internet the most comprehensive information provider, also makes it a harmful platform for the promotion of hatred against racial and religious communities (Rosenberg 2000). The Internet is considered an ideal medium for publishing hate propaganda to spread hate messages (Weinstein 1999) as compared with traditional methods because of the following advantages
It is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to create and share materials
It can reach a global audience in a very short time span through networking between individuals and groups who are like-minded.
Its an ideal platform to address and catch the attention of young people
Its multimedia facilities disguise hate under the surface of modernity
It s global nature makes it easier to bypass laws
As a result, the computer is replacing traditional modes of communication as the leading conveyor of hate propaganda and it is being used to promote hate, increasingly. In fact, the people whose aim is to spread hate were the first ones to realize the power of internet to convey their messages.

Internet as a tool to promote hate
The internet has a different philosophy about all the social problems, as is has a vast amount of information available on it anyone can simply browse on in and get the specific material on it and uncover the realities of society they wish to discover. As there are hardly any restrictions on creating up a website or posting comments, all the expressions seem equal.  People use internet as a tool to voice their hate comments. The facility one enjoys is that the hate speech is heard all around the world just by uploading the contact (Kessler 1999). Moreover, the Internet is oblivious to international borders due to which prohibited material under a countrys law can float freely and unchallenged both into and out of the country (Stern 2002). There is no way to monitor the material being accessed by people over the internet with just some clicks.

Ways in which internet is used to promote hate
Hate groups have existed for as long as diverse societies have been around. But now these groups have come up with new ways to spread their hate ideologies, through the use of the internet. There are many ways in which the internet can be used as a tool to promote hate. Anti organization pages on social networking sites, hate websites, blogs, videos, clips etc are used to spread hate speech all around the globe (Peterman 2009). In Canada, approximately 150 people are engaged in online hate propaganda (Dr. Mock and Armony, 1998). Even though hate promoters are a tiny proportion of the total Internet population, they can reach an estimated 50 million Internet users globally and this gives them a powerful voice that outweighs their numbers.

Anti organization pages on social networking sites are the most popular means of expressing hatred over the internet such as those on Face Book. Face Book is one of the worlds largest social networking sites with current worldwide users being more than 400 million (Hoffman 1997). There are many anti organization pages on this site. For example, those which disrespect Islam such as the highly controversial Fuck Islam group created by Stud Bake which states that we are here to help Muslims leave their abusive and false religion and calls for the religion to be smashed into pieces. This group has 1261 members. It was shut-down in earlier 2008 but re-opened on 8 August with the statement were here to stay.

On this page, Muslims are targeted for insults and hateful comments regarding Islam. Comments such as Islam is a disgusting disease of the mind and it needs to be stopped and down with Islam are used on this page. This contradicts the law and clearly acts as an inciter of racial hatred. There are more than 400 groups with same name on Face Book and over 300 groups have been created in response to Fuck Islam group such as these

There is a group on facebook help me to delete it (225,478 members)
 The FACEBOOK admin must DELETE the group FUCK ISLAM (11,098 members)
 hay facebook admin... you should delete the group fuck Islamdirectly (231,210 members
  Arriver a 500.000 personnes pour supprimer le groupe fuck islam (46,659 members)
The New York Times says that within a month or so since the creation of Fuck Islam group the reaction started to build across Face Book. Very soon more than 58,000 Facebook users had joined a group that claimed we are quitting Facebook unless the anti-Islam group is not deleted (Rawlings, 2008). Also, petitions were made to ask Face Book officials to delete such groups such as these
Petition to remove (fuck Islam) group from facebook
Petition for Facebook to delete the group Fuck Islam NOW
A group was made to threaten Face Book that if Fuck Islam group was not deleted then all Muslim members on Face Book would collectively take a stand and leave Face Book.

Some groups were created on behalf of Face Book administration saying that if the number of members reach a certain number Face Book will delete Fuck Islam group such as this
If we are 100000 people facebook will delete group fuck Islam (160,138 members )

Despite the formation of numerous counter-groups which have been active for years, Face Book has still not taken any action to delete the Fuck Islam groups. It is yet to eliminate the racist propaganda and abusive comments from its site.

Hate websites are a strong medium which encourage online hatred. According to a recent report by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, there are over 600 hate sites worldwide. This is a 100 increase from last year (Dr. Mock and Armony, 1998). To make the websites top ranking in search results, hate groups create Web pages that contain a large number of keywords embedded into the page coding which makes it more likely that people will click on their sites. They use online hate propaganda techniques in these websites to influence their visitors. These techniques are basically propaganda techniques used for centuries that have found a new, efficient distribution system in the form of the internet to target masses. They include word play, name calling, symbols, imagery, religious authority, scientific legitimacy, nationalism, fear mongering, smoke and mirror tactics and historical revisionism. In wordplay positive words are used to refer to the members of the group and words with negative associations are used to refer to the target group. For example, terrorist is a word that has become synonymous with the Muslims through the use of wordplay. Name calling is insulting the target group through the use of derogatory slang terms created specifically to refer to the target group such as extremists and radicals for Muslims. Symbols are an easy and powerful way for people who share the same ideology to form a connection with each other. Usually these symbols are adopted from other users who didnt associate them with hate related concepts. Imagery depicts the target group in a negative light. It is basically a visual form of hatred. For example, Muslims are depicted as insurgents and the bad guys. Hate groups give the leaders of the target group specific titles with religious affiliations and use the interpretations of scripture or other religious materials to prove the target group as hate worthy. For example, hate mongers use their own version of interpretations from the holy book of Muslims to say that Islam promotes violence which is not the case. All religions including Islam promote peace and love. To promote their ideology, hate groups sometimes tamper with academic works and scientific researches so that it would appear that their ideology is supported by scientific findings. Usage of pseudo-scientific studies is another common practice of hate groups in which the studies are fitted into an ideology. Playing on nationalistic feelings is another tactic employed by the hate groups. In this they promote their ideology under the cover of national heritage or as an issue of national security. For example, American citizens are told that they are under attack by Muslims so they should save America. In fear mongering the idea that hate groups ideology is in the best interests of the public is promoted. The target group is painted as dangerous or a threat to public to create an atmosphere of fear among the public. The hate groups disguise their real intentions and gain support through this cause so that they can promote their ideology within their group while maintaining support of mainstream groups. For example, Muslims are painted as terrorists and haters of Americans to give the impression that all Muslims hate Americans. In historical revisionism the hate group reconstitutes historical facts to make a version of history that is according to their ideology and can be presented to the audience. As many aspects of history are hard to prove as perfectly accurate, it gives the hate mongers a useful cover to promote their depictions as the real accounts. Hate activities can be connected to any of these actions or events use of derogatory symbols or words threats (direct or indirect) to groups publishing and exchange of negative stereotypes jokes destruction of memorials, meeting places and published materials of a particular group specific hate related acts on certain events or holidays usage of literature online which promotes hate and history of similar crimes.

However, hate websites are not the only instigators. There are many popular blogs that directly promote anti-social opinions on certain groups such as the anti-muslims blog on blog spot. People make vulgar comments about Muslims in these blogs and spread hatred by passing judgments based on misinformation and lies.

The use of videos and clips by hate mongers online through You Tube is another way which is spreading all over the world. There are numerous You Tube clips and videos that show Arabs and Islam in a negative way. People post clips which show disrespect to the Holy Quran by burning it, peeing on it, shooting it and various other ways simply to outrage Muslims.

Results of hate speech
The results of hate speech are not always very convincing. It tends to create tension and unsustainably among the people or groups that are being targeted (Tsesis 2002). It can lead to many serious outcomes like
Religious rift
Stereotyping
Biasness
False acquisitions
Promotion of hatred
Increase in hate crime

Religious rift
The hate speech made against some particular group of people following a religion can really harm the masses as religion is something everyone is close to and tends to get furious and violent about if some negative comments are being made against it, e.g. when Denmark published the cartoons of Muhammad there was a rift among the Muslims who protested strongly against it and banned all the products of Denmark in their countries. Authorities should make sure these types of comments are avoided at all costs and strict punishments are given to those who practice these.

Stereotyping
One of the worst outcomes of hate speech is that it creates a wrong perception in the minds of the people about a particular race or people. Bad people are in every community or group but its not ethically right to pin point those people and make a general perception of the whole community or group as being bad. When individuals are stereotypes it is unfair because they might not be like that and this creates hate.

Biasness
Hate speech also creates biasness among the people such as black people are inferior to the white people etc. which is very unfair and degrading to the victims. It can result in fewer or no promotions in job, fewer customer services provided and less number of job available. This biasness can result in protests and hatred towards the people of the other community.

False acquisitions
Hate speech can also lead to false accusations. For example, if someones wallet gets lost and he blames the house maid for stealing just because he thinks that as they are poor and dont have enough money they would be in a habit of stealing for extra income. The person had stereotyped the house maid because he has a perception in his mind that maids cannot be trusted or they are involved in stealing based on hate speech done against them.

Promotion of hatred
Hate speech creates hatred in the hearts of the people who are influenced by it and also in the hearts of the victims. This leads to a constant tension between the victims of hate speech and those who believe in hate speech, which is very harmful to everybody. Sometimes it can also lead to wars and unnecessary bloodshed. It can also damage a countrys or an institutions or a groups or a persons economic stability and peace. People or a group might react to something that they find insulting or degrading to them or their family. Passing comments about someones race, cast, religion or family background can seriously hurt his feelings and he is bound to feel insulted and has a high chance to react to it which would most likely be in the form of hatred towards the individual or the institution through physical or verbal aggression.

Increase in hate crime
Frequent or specific hate speech can definitely increase hate crimes. Hate crimes in recent years have increased at a much higher pace, since the so-called independence of media and freedom of speech. Hate crime may involve physical attack, insults, abusing, bullying and damage to possessions.

Rules and regulations
Numerous institutions in Europe and the United States started developing codes in the 1990s to punish or limit hate speech, based on the concept that it leads to discrimination. Hate speech codes are rules and regulations which are aimed at developing an atmosphere which is free from harassment and bullying. These codes forbid words or phrases which show hatred or disrespect towards a group or any individual based on their religious, cultural, sexual or ethnic identity, either deliberately or unintentionally. In many countries, use of hate speech deliberaty is considered a criminal offence which is prohibited under the legislation called incitement to hatred. In addition to these legal prohibitions in jurisdictions, the use of hate speech has also received prohibitions in form of bylaws of some governmental and non-governmental organizations, for example trade unions and public universities.

The Internet has specifically caught the attention of regulatory bodies as it has become a safe haven for promotion of hate speech. Legislatures all over the world have called for formation of new laws for regulation of Internet hate. State legislatures have found it necessary to regulate the Internet to stop unsolicited comments through hate speeches. In the United States, even though there arent any Internet-specific laws, the existing laws against direct threats or incitements to violence or terrorism have been used to combat online hate mongers. For example, Connecticut and Georgias internet legislation aims to punish harrassment and fighting words on the internet. According to Connecticuts internet law, Housebill 6883, its a felony to harrass a person over a computer network which includes the Internet as Internet is a set of computers connected via communication devices which satisfies the legislativ definition of computer network. The Internet hate protocol to the Cybercrime Treaty is the best example of a legal solution to the problem of Internet hate. Also, the websites which allow people to post content have certain rules and regulations for the users. They specify that the user access to and use of the site is subject to all local, federal, state, and international laws and regulations, applicable. The websites mention it in their terms of use that people cannot use the site for

Broadcasting any harassing, abusive, vulgar, threatening, unlawful, harmful, pornographic, obscene, defamatory or obnoxious material.

Posting material that encourages a conduct which can be classified as a criminal offence or which results in civil liability or which breaches any applicable law or regulation.

Breaching any laws related to the use of telecommunications and Computer networks.

How websites try to control the content
The websites have a hard time controlling all the content posted on their websites by different authors or writers. If the data or information on the website is huge it takes more than just some software or a request by a user to remove the content from the website. If the lack of interest is shown by the website then it may cause very negative impact on the image of the website or in some cases result in a total boycott of the website in certain areas or groups.

The websites try to control the content usually by three different methods
Flagging
Reporting
Content Control Software

Flagging
Flagging is done by the website to identify the unwanted or offensive content on the website. In this, the website flags down some of the suspicious areas of information or WebPages or certain suspicious users and track all of their content regularly in order to block any offensive and unwanted content placed by them.

Reporting
This is what every website generally does. Reporting is done on a regular and most frequent basis by the users. The website places a support or contact us tab on the websites for the people to report the offensive material found on the websites and also to report the bogus, biased and radical users present on the website. It is actually reporting which leads to flagging the certain WebPages or users. The website often places a direct report tab on its WebPages too. This enables the efficient and easier way for the users to report the content directly without writing long emails. Once the content is being reported it is thoroughly checked by the website whether it is really offensive to the people or not. Afterwards if the website finds it offensive then the material is removed and a formal warning is given to the user who has posted it. Some websites operate in a different way and removes the content on the basis of the number of repots against the certain Webpage. This is also a useful and efficient tool for removing the content out of the website.

Content Control Software
Some websites use content management software (CMS) to help them control the content on their websites. Censorware or web filtering software or content control software is the software planned to deliver and control the content allowable to a user or the reader. This is used to limit or restrict the matter available to the people on the web. It concludes the available content on the web for the specific user.  The websites may use these softwares to block the content in certain areas or to certain groups of people in order to operate smoothly.  

Steps taken by websites when offensive material is found
The media has reacted strongly and vigorously to the use of Internet as a platform for promoting hate speech by providing a continuous flow of stories relating to hate on the Internet. Anti-racist and human rights organizations have been predictably vocal. There has been wide spread political reaction and calls for applying existing laws to Internet offenders as well as use of legislation to regulate the net. As a result, websites have been forced to take actions against offensive materials. The websites mention in their terms of uselegal noticerules and regulations that they dont allow items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance, or promote organizations with such views. They explain that offensive material will be removed from the website if it is posted by someone such as listings that graphically portray graphic violence or victims of violence, unless they have substantial social, artistic, or political value.  They warn users that they may be subject to a range of actions including suspension of their account. Also, some websites provide the facility of reporting offensive material using report abuse options so that they can take the necessary steps to remove the site from their index (for search engines) or the material itself or the person who has posted it .

For example, Facebook maintains a robust reporting infrastructure that leverages our hundreds of millions of users to look for offensive or potentially dangerous content. This reporting infrastructure includes links on pages across the Facebook site, systems to prioritize the most serious reports, and a team of professional reviewers who respond to reports and escalate them to law enforcement as needed. We encourage our users to report any offensive or inappropriate content by clicking on the Report links located on pages throughout the site. We ask all users to report suspicious people and inappropriate content they encounter, and encourage users under the age of 18 to talk to a parent or a responsible adult immediately if someone online says or does something to make them feel uncomfortable or threatened in any way. We carefully consider all the details before deciding to remove such listings when theyre brought to our attention, looking at the entire listing to see if it goes against our guidelines.

In the UK there is a particular website of Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) which allows people to report offensive or illegal material they come across on the internet. The Internet Watch Foundation is authorized to judge the illegality of material and reports issues to the police force. If the organization decides that an action is necessary after investigating the report, they contact the ISP or the police. IWF is the only qualified organization in the UK that provides an online complaint centre for the public to report online illegal content.

Problems faced by websites in controlling content
There are a number of problems a website may face to control its content. The biggest and the most horrifying problems that a website faces include the amount of content present in the web page, the people who can access it and the number of people who can post comments or write anything they want to. It becomes very difficult for a social networking site such as facebook, Orkut, Skype etc. to properly check and organize the data. The websites have a de-centralized control of content which creates bottlenecks around posting content to the web. A lack of central control leads to varying styles of writing and thus contradictions across the site as its very difficult to ensure the quality and accuracy of content on the website. Also, there are no barriers to putting content online. This encourages people to add more but more is not always better. People often approach the websites with a wrong mentality because they are driven by the availability of the content rather than its effects on the reader. They look at the content they possess or one that they can easily produce and decide to put it online thinking that it will be useful for somebody. Another problem that a website may face is that the people using it may describe the offensiveness the hate as subjective and make this an excuse to shield their comments and motivate people to follow their footsteps. Stopping or restricting such people is not easy because they tend to think that what ever they are doing is right and they have the freedom of speech and are in total liberty to say and do things that might be offensive to the minorities or an individual.

The websites should keep in check the new pages and groups formed inside the original webpage and react strongly to the people who post unwanted, biased or racial comments about others. There should be a proper check and balance throughout. Abusing or pointing fingers at others is not a good practice and supporting them is even worst, which creates injustice and angry protesters. They should maintain less number of languages and more number of editors and content checkers so as to make checking easier and efficient. They should also hire a number of moderators who can keep a strict check on the content placed on the websites.

Conclusion
It is disheartening and shameful that freedom of speech is used for unworthy causes. Free speech signifies a responsibility for making public comments. It is unfortunate that people ignore the consequences of their commentary and propaganda which causes marginalization or ethnicgender bias. This is should not be happening in the 21st century. With ethno-religious and political strife all around the global, these sentiments should not be given a harbor in an international society.  History has proven this again and again.  If the hate miscreants pain themselves to acknowledge that polite speech carries greater weight than xenophobia and criticism, respectful communication can enhance current understandings of our identity and how we relate to others we share the world with. It is argued that the damage done by the hate speech and the rights of the free speech can be dealt by trying to balance them through restricting some aspects of hate speech and evaluating freedom of speech against the adverse effects of hate speech. However in this dilemma of hate vs. free speech is difficult the balance will usually tend to favor free speech.

The victims of hate speech should try to speak back. By using the power of speaking back, the effects of hate speech can be minimized. It would also ensure that the people can voice their concerns and participate in the establishment of civil education and communication.