Censorship, HATE SPEECH, and Free Speech ; POST-DIGITAL CIVILITY
Who decides whether speech should be heard or censored? Who decides what constitutes hate speech? Increasingly algorithms are being tasked with these decisions. They have the power to decide what is fact or fiction, what topics are worthy of debate, and which speakers should be encouraged, discouraged, or silenced. The algorithms now police the public square and generally do so poorly.
The IDH's Free Speech initiatives focus on giving the power and freedom of speech back to humans, while determining how to balance hate speech censorship and free speech protections.
The IDH understands that Free Speech is important for democracy to flourish, but we also recognize that Hate Speech is a real problem that inflicts real-world harms. Our initiates around Free Speech focus providing digital spaces with a framework for determining Hate Speech without limiting constitutionally-protected Free Speech.
