The growing incidence of racism on social media in South Africa suggests that there are consequences. Whether there ought to be criminal sanctions remains an ongoing debate.
Inflammatory speech has often found fertile ground in Kenya's election campaign period. As the country approaches another political cliff-hanger, law enforcement agencies have their work cut out.
Liberal MP Ian Goodenough is chairing a parliamentary inquiry into freedom of speech in Australia.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Neither Galaxy Research nor the Institute of Public Affairs think-tank discussed the most interesting data they garnered from polling on free speech and reform to Section 18C.
Whom do we become in online comments?
Troll via shutterstock.com
A minor change, substituting 'vilify' for 'offend' and 'insult', would bring Section 18C more in line with similar laws in other democracies without undermining its effectiveness.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks at a conference for her party.
AP Photo/Martin Meissner
In reelection bid, Merkel's not just up against a xenophobic, nationalist party in Germany. In the wake of Trump’s election, liberal democracies around the world hope she'll defend them, too.
Trump has given extremists a high-profile stage, but in the process exposed them to the disinfecting sunlight.
Protestants hold a Sunday service in the open air in Jakarta. Their efforts to erect their own church buildings have been blocked by hardline Muslim groups.
Cherian George
Messages on social media reportedly fuelled the burning of Buddhist temples in Indonesia last month. Laws against hate speech are widely ignored and weakly policed.
The government claims changes to Section 18C are no longer on its agenda.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
Section 18C is limited in scope, and it would thus be wrong to claim that free speech carte blanche is under threat.
A survivor stands in the graveyard where a church was torched in Eldoret, 300km west of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The consequences of hate speech are evident in the country.
Reuters/Noor Khamis
The violence that often accompanies political disputes or elections is testimony to the efficacy of hate propaganda as a tool in the political arsenal of Kenyan politicians.
Depends on how you define ‘hate speech’.
Shutterstock/Tashatuvango
Social media companies have agreed to a European plan to take down offensive material within 24 hours. Will it work and if so, can it be extended to other regions?
Two recent controversial cartoons depicting people as apes have raised an important question: what are the legal and philosophical distinctions between harm and offence?
Hero of the hour: BBC London talkback host, Simon Lederman.
BBC
As the debate spreads from Missouri to universities across the country, insights from The Conversation's coverage of race on campus.
Students protest at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University demanding the right to be taught in English rather than Afrikaans, which they identify with apartheid.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
The university should be the bastion of the right to free expression in the promotion of democracy, and has a moral and ethical obligation to provide spaces for fierce debate and critical engagement.
