A/78/538 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 52/36, in which the Council requested the Special Rapporteur to submit an annual report to the General Assembly. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur addresses the issue of online racist hate speech. 2. To inform the report, the Special Rapporteur published a call for submissions from States and other stakeholders, including civil society organizations, academic institutions, United Nations entities and national human rights institutions. The Special Rapporteur is grateful to all those who submitted the inputs requested. She has drawn upon the extensive inputs that she received in the preparation of the report and remains open to an ongoing dialogue with all relevant stakeholders on this important issue. The focus of the present report is on global trends and relevant international human rights law standards, and the corresponding duties of States and other actors with regard to preventing and addressing online racist hate speech. 3. The present report on online racist hate speech is aligned with the Special Rapporteur’s strategic focus on analysing the nexus between digital technologies and contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The Special Rapporteur takes note of the information provided in some of the submissions received about forms of online racism, algorithm bias and other issues relating to human rights in the digital space that fall outside the direct scope of the report. While recognizing the interconnectedness of different issues relating to digital technology and equality and non-discrimination, not all the issues included in the submissions received will be addressed in the present report due to limitations of scope and space. The Special Rapporteur may draw upon such information to inform future work on digital technologies and contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. 4. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur summarizes the activities that sh e has undertaken since the commencement of her tenure on 1 November 2022. She provides an analysis of the different manifestations and consequences of online racist hate speech. The Special Rapporteur subsequently presents an overview of the international legal framework as it relates to online racist hate speech and articulates the corresponding responsibilities of States and companies. She then analyses some of the challenges faced in preventing and addressing online racist hate speech. Finally, the Special Rapporteur presents her conclusions and recommendations on how States and other stakeholders can prevent and address online racist hate speech. II. Summary of activities 5. The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discriminat ion, xenophobia and related intolerance was appointed by the Human Rights Council in October 2022, during its fifty-first session. She is the sixth Special Rapporteur appointed under the mandate. She took up her functions on 1 November 2022. 6. Since the beginning of her tenure, the Special Rapporteur has attended several international events and conferences. In November and December 2022, she attended the inaugural session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent in Geneva, where she gave a presentation on the racialized causes and consequences of the climate crisis, she spoke at the eleventh Forum on Business and Human Rights and she met with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination during its 108th session. In March 2023, the Special Rapporteur attended the eleventh national conference on non-discrimination in Malaysia, which was focused on the impact of the Internet on racism and racial discrimination. In August 2023, the Special 4/22 23-20290