Building capacity on reporting online hate speech

Organisation

Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics (Žurnalistų etikos inspektoriaus tarnyba).

Start and end date

Start date:

September 2018.

End date:

October 2020.

Scope

National.

Target group(s)

• Social workers.
• Local authority representatives who deal with vulnerable groups.
• Teachers.
• The general public.

Funding

EU funds (Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme 2014–2020).

Objectives

• Improve knowledge and awareness of hate speech.
• Address under-reporting.
• Intensify the countering of hate speech online.

Outputs

• An information technology (IT) tool for reporting online hate speech to the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics (IT įrankis pranešti Žurnalistų etikos inspektoriaus tarnybai apie neapykantą kurstančias kalbas internete) and an online campaign to advertise the IT tool via the largest and most popular news portals.
• Ten workshops on hate speech for social workers, local authority representatives who deal with vulnerable groups and teachers.
• Four online publications and eight newspaper articles (with online versions) on hate speech in three languages (Lithuanian, Polish and Russian):
  • ‘Hate speech – danger to everyone’ (‘Nesantaikos kalba – pavojus kiekvienam’);
  • ‘Topics on sexual orientation receive the most hate speech’ (‘Temos apie seksualinę orientaciją sulaukia daugiausia nesantaikos kalbų’);
  • ‘Hate speech against national minorities – from politics to immigrants’ (‘Nesantaikos kalba tautinių mažumų atžvilgiu – nuo politikos iki imigrantų’);
  • ‘Hate speech against other religions – are we angry because we do not understand?’ (‘Nesantaikos kalba kitų religijų atžvilgiu – pykstame dėl to, kad nesuprantame?’).

Description

• The practice was implemented in the framework of the project ‘Strengthening the response to hate crimes and the language of hate in Lithuania’ (website newsletter).
• An IT tool for reporting online hate speech to the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics was developed and implemented on the web pages of the public institutions concerned.
• An online campaign to advertise this tool was launched and disseminated via the largest and most popular news portals (www.delfi.lt and www.lrt.lt).
• The workshops for the target groups were organised according to the 10 state counties. The aims of the workshops were to highlight the differences between freedom of expression and the dissemination of illegal hate speech, and reveal the nature of hate speech and its effects on vulnerable people, as well as revealing the gravity of hate speech for society. A total of 327 professionals attended the workshops: 117 social workers, 163 local authority representatives who deal with vulnerable groups and 47 teachers.
• Four publications in three languages (Lithuanian, Polish and Russian) were disseminated via the largest Lithuanian news portal and social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube). These publications not only explain the action of the algorithm when hate speech is encountered, but, above all, clearly define the problem by giving examples on the hate speech phenomenon and its gravity and the impacts on vulnerable people. Eight newspaper articles and online versions of the articles in three languages (Lithuanian, Polish and Russian) were then disseminated in five regional newspapers.

Critical success factors

The development of the IT tool for reporting online hate speech was combined with an online campaign to advertise this tool and activities to raise the public’s awareness about hate speech.

Actors involved in the design and implementation of the practice

No participatory approach was applied.

Monitoring and evaluation

No overall monitoring and evaluation of the practice was carried out.

Feedback from participants of the workshops was collected using evaluation forms. Most of the participants agreed that such workshops enable discussions that are necessary for general society to gather information and obtain at least a basic understanding of the gravity of hate speech and its impacts on vulnerable groups. Attendees also pointed to the lack of understanding of the hate speech phenomenon.

Publicly available contact details

Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics
Gedimino pros. 60
LT-01110
Vilnius
Lithuania
Telephone: +370 600 81936, +370 600 83160 or +370 618 75748
Email: zeit@zeit.lt
Website