A/HRC/46/57
88.
The Special Rapporteur recommends that national legislation be in place that
requires social media platforms to adopt policies and protocols to identify hate speech
on the grounds of national origin, ethnicity, religion and language, as well as other
factors such as gender and sexual orientation, while respecting the right to privacy of
individuals.
89.
The Special Rapporteur encourages social media companies to manage hate
speech on their platforms with reference to the human rights implications of their
products, including algorithms and artificial intelligence programs such as chatbots.
They must therefore have in place human rights review processes that refer to and focus
specifically on the groups most susceptible to hate speech in the States concerned, and
in particular minorities, women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex
communities.
90.
The Special Rapporteur invites States to act decisively, quickly and effectively to
address and counter hate speech against minorities in online communications, including
by swiftly and effectively investigating and prosecuting those responsible, holding them
accountable, and ensuring that victims have effective access to justice and remedy.
91.
The Special Rapporteur invites States, the United Nations and its entities, and in
particular OHCHR, to initiate a process to develop a global voluntary code of conduct
for social media platforms to combat hate speech. He also requests that they support
his efforts to draft guidelines on combating hate speech targeting minorities in social
media, as a matter of urgency, in 2021–2022.
92.
The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that social media’s content moderation
systems and community standards and any oversight or appeal entity should clearly
commit to protecting vulnerable and marginalised minorities and other groups.
Minorities should specifically be identified as priorities for social media platforms.
93.
The Special Rapporteur invites owners of social media platforms to apply the
Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in their own operations. Human
rights standards should be systematically integrated into the content policies and
decision mechanisms of social media platforms, so that, as specified in the Guiding
Principles, their owners “comply with all applicable laws and respect internationally
recognized human rights wherever they operate”, and “treat the risk of causing or
contributing to gross human rights abuses as a legal compliance issue wherever they
operate”, for which they could be liable.
94.
The Special Rapporteur urges States to establish independent and authoritative
specialized institutions that meet international standards to carry out work to counter
hate speech, and accessible mechanisms for civil society organizations to report hate
speech online.
95.
The Special Rapporteur recommends that States provide adequate and
specialized training to law enforcement agencies and the judiciary on minority rights,
in particular with regard to hate speech online against minorities.
96.
The Special Rapporteur encourages States and social media platforms to
comprehensively address distortion and systemic bias against Jews and Muslims, as
evidence suggests that antisemitism and Islamophobia are pressing challenges for
minority rights.
97.
The Special Rapporteur urges States to adopt human rights education initiatives
on minority rights, including in school curricula; to promote diversity and pluralism;
and to combat discrimination, stereotyping, xenophobia, racism and hate speech by
disseminating positive, alternative and inclusive narratives that invite dialogue.
98.
In order to improve mechanisms and content vetting policies for the handling of
hateful content, and to ensure incorporation of the concerns of the main targets of hate
speech in social media, the Special Rapporteur urges that minorities, as the most
targeted and vulnerable groups, be represented in advisory and other relevant boards.
99.
The Special Rapporteur invites States, national human rights institutions and
civil society representatives to use the United Nations human rights mechanisms,
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