speech in social media and that the UN and other organisations must focus their efforts on this issue. The Special Rapporteur emphasised that the regional approach must be continued. He announced that four regional forums (Americas, Africa and Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Europe) are projected for next year on conflict prevention and the protection of human rights of minorities. The Special Rapporteur noted that hate speech in social media targets not only, but overwhelmingly minorities and at times it leads to violence and atrocities. He was concerned that very few of the initiatives from international or regional organizations acknowledge directly the scale and ferocity of hate speech. He stressed that it needs to be emphasised that everywhere, minorities are the main target of hate speech. Where data is available, it indicates that 70, 80 and even 90% or more of hate speech and hate crimes target minorities; and it must not be forgotten that migrants and refugees are almost all minorities of one kind or another. The Special Rapporteur stated that we are running out of descriptives. He said that while some of the UN and international organisations’ initiatives refer to anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or even in a few occasions anti-Gypsyism, we are running out of descriptives for hate-speech against Asians, peoples of colour, members of different castes or different minorities. They are all minorities and they are targeted because it is easy and convenient for extremists, racists and politicians to scapegoat and dehumanise those who are minorities, those who are less able to defend themselves against usually the majority. He stated that we are facing a hugely complex interaction between freedom of expression, the allowable restrictions on international law to protect the human rights of others, including the human rights of minorities where necessary, and the legal obligation to prohibit the advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. He explained that these are the three levels of speech which are also identified the Rabat Plan of Action. The Special Rapporteur note the need for clarity and certainty from some kind of international legal framework. He said that it is essential not only to guarantee freedom of expression, but also to be more precise on what is prohibited in respect of freedom of expression in relation to hate speech targeting and involving minorities. He drew the attention to the need of regimes of responsibility and accountability of the main actors involved; and also of productive dialogues, collaboration and positive awareness raising programmes. He also stated that there can be prohibitions or restrictions to hate speech which do not involve criminalisation, but it might still be necessary to protect the human rights of minorities; including the financial liability of social media platform owners. Their approach has been probably too timid. Mr. de Varennes declared that the profit of these platforms is money made through hate propagating hate speech. The Special Rapporteur stated that the international community has still much more to do in order to concretely define hate speech and its limits against minorities. He noted that 23