A/HRC/26/49 D. Civil society initiatives to counter racism, xenophobia, discrimination and other related hate speech on the Internet and social media 55. Civil society actors are essential to the efforts to combat racism and hate on the Internet and social media. The Special Rapporteur therefore highlights below some of the projects and contributions brought to his attention and which complement the initiatives taken at the international, regional and national levels. These actors often work together with international, regional or national authorities in allowing victims of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia to defend their rights and to express their views on the Internet and social media. 56. The International Network against Cyber Hate (www.inach.net). based in Amsterdam, unites organizations from around the world to promote responsibility and citizenship on the Internet, and to counter hate speech. Its main activity is to act as an exchange platform for the numerous member organizations based in different countries, stimulating the sharing of knowledge in order to find new solutions for the challenges posed by hate speech in social media. Similarly, the Magenta Foundation, a non-profit organization, also based in Amsterdam, acts in response to human rights violations perpetrated in Europe and elsewhere. With the main objective of combating racism, antiSemitism and discrimination based on ethnicity, the organization began to focus special attention on discrimination on the Internet in 1996. With the assistance of the Government of the Netherlands, the Foundation created the first complaints bureau for discrimination on the Internet (www.meldpunt.nl/), for handling complaints on discrimination on the Internet from servers based in the Netherlands. When the bureau deems that a complaint is acceptable, the website or social media platform is notified and requested to remove the content; in the event of non-compliance, the bureau may take legal action. In 2012, 78 per cent of notifications from public complaints were successful in leading to the removal of racist content and hate speech.9 Besides handling complaints, the bureau promotes educative measures, such as public lectures in universities and workshops for the Dutch Police Department and the Public Prosecutor’s Office. It also engages in research projects concerning trends in discrimination on the Internet. 57. The Southern Poverty Law Center (www.splcenter.org/), based in Montgomery, Alabama (United States of America), is dedicated to the fight against hate, racism and other forms of intolerance, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. The early identification and the removal of racist content online are vital in preventing hate speech from spreading. The organization monitors the media and social websites in the United States for hate groups and hate speech based on racism or gender discrimination. Its findings are published online in a dedicated blog and in a quarterly report. The organization has also updates its own “hate map”, which reflects the number and localization of hate speech groups in the United States. 58. The Anti-Defamation League (www.adl.org) is an organization active in the fight against anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia. It has initiated education seminars for youth to stop cyberbullying, hate and intolerance online. One of the League’s initiatives, the Cyber-Hate Action Guide, is directed at helping victims of cyberbullying. In the Guide compiles the hate speech policies of major websites based in the United States, and informs Internet users on how to report hate speech activities on each site. 59. The Association for Progressive Communications (www.apc.org) advocates for the creation of inclusive and non-discriminatory policies online. Several of its projects are aimed at combating gender-based discrimination and women’s rights, while others are 9 See www.magenta.nl/en/projects/8-mdi. 15