OHPI response to announcement of EU & Social Media companies on hate speech

[Andre Oboler]

Dear all,

The European Union has reached agreement with Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft on a code of conduct to “quickly and efficiently” tackle hate speech. This could be a game changer.

The next step needs to be mechanisms to measure and verify how quickly and how accurately the platforms are dealing with content that incites violence or hate. At the Online Hate Prevention Institute we have been working on this issue for years and our systems to do this are up and running. You have seen the results in the "Measuring the Hate: the State of Antisemitism on Social Media" report. Let's hope the time to extend this work has come.

The briefing discusses:

* The growing importance of European law for the internet
* European Union’s deep awareness of the issues
* The push for platforms to fund efforts against online hate
* The change this agreement may signal for Twitter
* Removals are needed, not just counter speech 
* Speed, efficiency but also accuracy is needed
* The next step is measurement so the current state and improvements can be measured 

The full briefing is at: http://ohpi.org.au/european-union-agreement-with-social-media-platforms-on-hate-speech/

Regards,

Andre

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Dr Andre Oboler
CEO, Online Hate Prevention Institute

www.ohpi.org.au