Week 5
Don’t Hate! Gyrate
In this TEDx episode, Chris Alton is a 23 year old artist and Quaker tells the story the English Disco Lovers (EDL), a good example of how to start campaign groups with no resources. The EDL is a subversive social movement looking to reclaim the EDL acronym, most commonly associated with the English Defence League. His intention was to make the three letter abbreviation more synonymous with disco than ‘defence’, supplanting negative connotations with positive ones. Over the past three years they have occupied various spaces online, participated in street-level demonstrations up and down the UK. The group currently run a series of club nights, where they spread their “Don’t Hate! Gyrate!” message and raise money for numerous causes.
Watch Video
Scrubbing the right
In this mini-documentary of Deustche Welle, it depicts the struggle of Irmela Mensah-Schramm, a retired woman working hard against right-wing extremism. She scrubs and scrapes off stickers bearing far-right slogans and paints over graffiti. And she takes part in sit-in protests, all of which puts her at odds with the law. Her action inspired No Hate Speech Movement in Finland which used the idea for similar actions at festivals.
Watch Video
Gunn High School Sings Away Hate Group
This video from the Not in Our Town Movement in Kansas, show that communities can stand up to hate against LGBT communities in a peaceful and constructive way. The Gunn High School, an accepting school in Kansas, has been the victim of regular pickets by the Westboro Baptist Church, a hate group which protests near the funerals of gay people, military veterans, and disaster victim. They decided to respond to the demonstrators by showing the strength of their values and community.
Watch Video
Anti-refugee commenters meet actual refugees
With over 1 million readers per day, Index.hu is one of the most popular and influential Hungarian language internet portals. In this video, they invited anti-refugee Facebook commenters to Keleti railway station in Budapest, Hungary, to meet the actual refugees on whom they wrote hate comments.This video is an inspiring example of bringing people in dialogue to break stereotypes.
Watch Video
This is Racism
In this video designed as part of a campaign against hate speech of Matteo Salvini, the far-right leader of Italy, the video conceptualises how oppressive narratives work against the Other. Video making, if they are well made, help support people to understand concepts that are normalising hate speech.
Watch Video
Week 4
Preparing to take action against hate speech
Hate speech is complex and there is no “one-fits-all” responses to the phenomenon. The action depends on the instance of hate speech, our relation to that instance, what we want to achieve with our intervention and what tools we have. In this video, Martin suggests steps to prepare to take action, and gives an overview of all the possibilities that exist to fight effectively against hate speech.
Watch Video
A Human Rights Approach to Hate Speech
Hate speech is a violation to human rights, and any response should not reproduce hate, discrimination or violence. But what is a human rights approach to tackling hate speech in practice? In this video, Martin is explaining what are the different questions you should ask yourself to ensure your action is rooted in human rights.
Watch Video
Intersectionality in relation to hate speech
One is almost never solely privileged or marginalised. No person only belongs to one social group but has multiple identity affiliations at the same time. For example, a gay Black man working in the care business may feel related to various social groups at the same time: man, black or African culture, LGBTQI+, and care workers. The privilege of a person can then be seen at the intersection of multiple identities: being male can imply some benefits, while being gay may not. Our benefits are defined in relation to others. For example, one group is privileged, white people, while others are not, non-white people. In this video, Emilia Roig is explaining the concept of intersectionality in relation to hate speech.
Watch Video
Interview with Gregor Theilmeier, #ichbinhier Initiative
In the past two decades, Internet has contributed to tighten the relationship among individuals and groups in the public sphere. For example, the Internet has enabled global activism and cross-border co-operation. At the same time, the Internet and especially social media platforms have been used as spaces and tools of hate. Although there is no sound statistics of the phenomenon, social media platforms have recognized that hateful messages disseminated online are increasingly common. In this video, Gregor Theilmeier is describing an intiative directly responding to hate speech online.
Watch Video
Week 3
Misheel Enkh-Amgalan
Hate Speech versus Freedom of Expression
Freedom of expression is a fundamental right. The question to which extent free expression may be practised has been debated since it was mentioned in early human rights documents. Should we label some forms of hate speech as free expression? Or should we limit freedom of expression, in order to, for example, protect targets of hate speech? In this video, Misheel is helping us to explore these questions.
Watch Video
Misheel Enkh-Amgalan
What hate speech is, is controversial
Identifying the intention to do harm is one of the most important tasks to define hate speech. In many cases, however, the intention of the person can be unclear, or hate speech can be implicit, which makes it very difficult to detect. In this video, Misheel explores, how the vistim’s point of view can help in clarifying the intention of the ‘perpetrator’, while highlighting the limits it poses.
Watch Video
Jan Bruck
Is a new hate speech law killing German comedy?
Germany is among the first countries in Europe that approved and amended a number of laws at the National level to regulate hate speech. A new law was passed by the Parliament at the end of June 2017 and came into force in early October. It is called “The Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz” and this law aimed at combating agitation and fake messages (fake news) in social networks. The law has been controversial in Germany with some saying it could lead to inadvertent censorship or curtail free speech. This video is explaining the controversy taking the examples of comedians’ experiences.
Watch Video
Week 2
Misheel Enkh-Amgalan
What are Human Rights?
Human Rights are often considered an abstract concept, yet they are about concrete life situations and they form the very basis on which the system has been built. But why are they important and relevant to hate speech? In this video, Misheel explores the definition and characteristics of Human Rights and why they are essential to fight against hate speech.
Watch Video
Misheel Enkh-Amgalan
The history and evolution of Human Rights
“Human rights are a Western creation”; “Respect of human rights is against my traditions and culture”; “Human rights violate national sovereignty” are some often heard objections whenever discussing Human Rights. In this video, Misheel is helping us to navigate the evolution of Human Rights and to understand how they are more complex than these objections may suggest.
Watch Video
Misheel Enkh-Amgalan
The Human Rights Protection System
How can we access Human Rights? And how can they be respected and implemented? Misheel explores with us the responsibilities of States in relation to human rights, the institutions ensuring that they are protected, and how Human Rights can be claimed.
Watch Video
European Court of Human Rights
European Convention on Human Rights
This video from the European Court of Human Rights recapitulates the main rights and freedoms in the Convention.
Watch Video
European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
This video from the European Court of Human Rights explains how the Court works, describes the challenges faced by it and shows the scope of its activity through examples from the case-law. It looks at the different rights on the convention and how the Court protects Human Rights.
Watch Video
Week 1
Martin Pairet
Welcome to Countering Hate Speech
Welcome to the online course on Countering Hate Speech in Europe! Hate speech, both online and offline, is on the rise throuhgout Europe, impacting the social cohesion between communities and threatening the very basis of our democracy: freedom, equality, and dignity. Martin introduces the key questions covered in the 6-week course, and how we will explore them.
Watch Video
Misheel Enkh-Amgalan
What is Hate Speech?
Hate speech is everywhere today: on the media, online, offline, in the streets and walls. Not a single day passes without us reading hateful comments on the latest music video on YouTube or hearing about the latest controversial Tweet of a politician. But what is really hate speech? How can we define it? In this video, Misheel is giving her first insights to help us to define the phenomenon.
Watch Video
Misheel Enkh-Amgalan
Causes and consequences of Hate Speech?
Whatever the definition of hate speech is, this is not an abstract concept. Hate Speech has clear consequences on the everyday life of people, both on the individual and collective leel. But where does hate come from? In this video, Misheel explores the roots causes of hate speech and the multi-faceted impact it has in our society.
Watch Video
No Hate Speech Movement
No Hate Speech Movement
Campaign Video
Many people across Europe have been the target of hate in multiple occasions. In this video, Europeans are sharing with us their own experience with hate speech, giving us an account of the direct impact of hate and some of the challenges fighting against it.
Watch Video
Misheel Enkh-Amgalan
Forms of hate speech
Hate speech is often understood as only covering verbal expressions. But hate speech can take many forms. Sometimes it is very difficult to understand whether or not there is hate. Are some forms of hate worse than others? In this video, Misheel gives keys to assess and identify hate speech.
Watch Video
No Hate Speech Movement
No Hate Ninja Project
A Story About Cats, Unicorns and Hate Speech
Internet has a dark side because it also made it easier to share hate speech. And hate speech online is only one environment where hate speech is produced, distributed, re-appropriated, and debated. Hate speech offline is not less harmful, often even online hate speech function as mirror of the hate speech offline. Within this two environments – online and offline – hate speech get packaged in various forms. This video summarises the main inputs of the first week of the course.
Watch Video