Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva ‫بسم هللا الرحمن الرحیم‬ Statement By Seyed Mohammad Sadati Nejad Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran Before 13th Session of the Forum on Minorities First thematic panel discussion Causes, scale and impact of hate speech targeting minorities in social media Geneva, 19 November 2020 Madam President The mounting number of attacks on migrants and minorities, in particular Muslim minorities, in some western countries has raised deep concerns about the connection between inflammatory hate speeches online and violent acts. There is a grave concern that the response to the hate speech by the social media platforms has been uneven, selective, double-standard and discriminatory. The task of deciding what and how to censor has largely fallen to the handful of private corporations that control the social platforms and is mostly in line with their business interests resulting in increasing violence against Muslims and specific groups and entities and also mis-use of these platforms by terrorist and criminal groups. These companies, on one hand, are constrained and dominated by the domestic laws of certain States and act in line with their interests, and on the other hand are can serve to defuse discrimination and head off violence against migrants and minorities. Much of the world now communicates on social media, with nearly a third of the world’s population active on Facebook alone. As more and more people have moved online, experts say, individuals inclined toward racism or islamophobia have found niches that can reinforce their views and goad them to violence. Social media platforms and the way they are controlled, also offer violent actors the opportunity to publicize their acts and disseminate their hate 1