legal and social notion that the majority ethnic community has more privileges and rights over others; thus, the real work to reframe equality for all in Malaysia and other countries is still needed. During his intervention, he provided examples of social media hate speech related to a journalist, the Rohingya and the Malaysian NHRI itself. These were examples to illustrate the huge unease about hate online, however, he noted that only a few complaints on hate speech were submitted to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM). Mr. Joseph provided some recommendations, such as: the strengthening the Complaints Mechanism of the NHRI; engagement with all Stakeholders as counter voices against hate; bridging the Information Gap; monitoring Law and Policy; and growing more business responsibility and investment (including adopting content policies that have zero-tolerance towards hate speech, investment in Artificial Intelligence and better content moderators that are trained in human rights). In this particular point, he highlighted that the network of NHRIs through GAHNRI and OHCHR could consider coordinating a focus on this subject matter with business partners, through the creation of an International Task Force. Other recommendations mentioned by Mr. Joseph were the need of community education campaigns for communities to counter hate messages against minorities, which can be done in partnership between the NHRI, CSOs, businesses and government; widespread Public Messaging, including human rights messaging, in all local languages and considering all sectors of society; and youth partnership, including through universities and schools to expose them to knowledge and skills to identify hate speech that may enable them to counteract messages of hatred. Mr. Joseph concluded stressing the need of all societies regarding informed legislative steps, clear policy actions and strategic social response to tackle the issues minorities face by the speech. Discussion Participants raised issues and presented initiatives, such as: - The research programme “Innovative Monitoring Systems and Prevention Policies of Online Hate Speech” combines innovative methods of a multipronged approach for near-real-time detection of hate speech, identifying the triggers, the deconstruction and weakening of violent narratives, and raising media literacy awareness among the general public. - Hate speech requires an intersectional approach from States, intergovernmental organisations, companies, national human rights institutions and civil society. It was also noted that human rights defenders, especially those belonging to minority groups, are often subject to threats, intimidation and harassment in both online and offline when they speak up against hate speech in social media. Those attacks can be exacerbated when they are also targeted for their intersecting identities such as gender, sexual orientation and disability. 21

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