RightsCon Toronto 2018

Although hate speech and fake news existed long before 2017, both terms have surged in notoriety, with a reported 365 percent increase in usage of the latter in the last two years . While a large portion of this interest has centered on Western politics, this session aims to re-focus the conversation around the negative role that these phenomena play in propagating violence and human rights abuses in situations of conflict and armed violence, and the key role of technology in their dissemination.
This session also will explore the ways in which hate speech and fake news affect humanitarians and human rights workers, and how this interplays with other issues such as the role of the press, privacy, free speech, and digital rights. Through this targeted discussion, we hope to further our understanding of the realities of fake news and hate speech for human rights and international humanitarian law today, what it means for organizations like the ICRC, and whether or not we can be part of the solution.