Fundación Secretariado Gitano

The EU publishes the 5th evaluation of the Code of Conduct on hate speech on the Internet [editar]

• Equal treatment

On June 22 the European Commission published the results of its fifth evaluation of the Code of Conduct on combating illegal hate speech online. The results are generally positive: Internet companies evaluate 90% of the reported content within 24 hours and remove 71% of the content considered to be illegal hate speech. However, platforms need to further improve transparency and responsiveness to users.

Věra Jourová, Vice President for Values ​​and Transparency, commented that "The Code of Conduct remains a success when it comes to countering illegal hate speech online. It has brought urgent improvements while fully respecting fundamental rights, and created valuable partnerships between civil society organizations, national authorities and internet platforms. Now is the time to ensure that all platforms have the same obligations throughout the Single Market and clarify in legislation the responsibilities of the platforms to make users be safer on the internet. What is illegal offline is still illegal on the internet. "

The fifth evaluation shows that, on average:

- The platforms evaluated 90% of the content marked in 24 hours, while they only evaluated 40% of the content in 2016.

- 71% of the content considered as illegal hate speech was removed in 2020, while in 2016 it was only 28%.

- The average removal rate, similar to that recorded in previous evaluations, shows that platforms continue to respect freedom of expression and avoid removing content that does not qualify as illegal hate speech.

- The platforms responded to 67.1% of the notifications received. This is a higher percentage than in the previous monitoring exercise (65.4%). However, only Facebook consistently informs users; all other platforms have to make improvements in this regard.

In addition, the Commission will continue in 2020 and 2021 to facilitate dialogue between internet companies and civil society organizations working on the ground to address illegal hate speech, in particular to encourage engagement with the moderation teams for content and mutual understanding of local legal specificities regarding hate speech.

The Code of Conduct is based on close cooperation between the European Commission, internet platforms, civil society organizations and national authorities. All stakeholders meet regularly under the umbrella of the High Level Group to Combat Racism and Xenophobia, to discuss current challenges and next steps.

Each monitoring exercise was carried out following a commonly agreed methodology that allows comparing the results over time. The fifth exercise was carried out over a 6-week period, from November 4 to December 13, 2019, by 34 civil society organizations and 5 public agencies that reported the results of a total sample of 4,364 notifications from all the Member States (plus the United Kingdom), with the exception of Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Malta and Denmark. Notifications were sent through channels available to all users, or through special channels only accessible to trusted informants, including the FSG.

Last year, the Fundación Secretariado Gitano managed to include the category of ‘anti-gypsyism’ within these monitoring cycles. Thanks to this, we now have the specific data on the content of anti-Gypsy hate reported: in this 5th cycle it is 9.9% of the content (435 messages). This assumes that anti-gypsyism is the third leading cause of hate speech, behind only that based on sexual orientation (33%) and xenophobia (15%). (See Annex)

A total of 4,364 notifications were presented to internet companies that participate in the Code of Conduct.

• 2,513 notifications were sent through the reporting channels available to general users, while 1,851 were sent through specific channels available only to trusted informants.

• Facebook received the most notifications (2,348), followed by Twitter (1,396), YouTube (464), and Instagram (109).

• In addition to flagging content to internet companies, organizations participating in the monitoring exercise submitted 475 cases of hate speech to the police, prosecutor's bodies, or other national authorities.

In the case of Spain, the Fundación Secretariado Gitano was the entity that reported the most cases (108). The FELGTB, the Oberaxe and the Ministry of the Interior also participated in the cycle.

Regarding the withdrawal rates of the reported content, this year Spain obtained a lower rate than in the previous cycle, 46.9% in this cycle by 59.7% in the previous one. This may be due to the fact that a lot of content was reported that ultimately did not fit the hate speech criteria. In the case of the FSG, 80% of the reported anti-gypsy content was withdrawn, a quite satisfactory rate.

The low level of withdrawal from the Twitter platform stands out: only 35.9% of the reported content has been deleted, on average across the EU. Facebook is the only platform that shows a positive progression in each cycle, reaching 87.6% withdrawal in this last cycle.

From the FSG we positively value the realization of these monitoring cycles, since they are a tool to improve the control of hate speech on the internet and in order to show the reality of anti-gypsyism visible on social networks, raising awareness among providers of this reality and helping to improve the management of hate content, one of the main problems currently in the field of discrimination.

This evaluation is published at a very opportune moment, because we have detected an increase in anti-gypsy hate speech on social networks during the COVID 19 crisis. For this reason, we insist on the importance of working in this line of cooperation between companies, administrations and NGOs, so that the platforms comply with their commitments regarding hate speech online.

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