The impact of hate speech can undermine peace and development, become the basis of conflict and tension, and be the cause of widespread human rights violations.
The head of the National Agency for the Eradication of Terrorism (BNPT), Komjen Boy Rafli Amar said hate speech activities along with technological advances through social media were feared to break unity.
Boy stated that hate speech could be an entry point for radical behavior and terrorism which have been proven to damage and destroy human life and civilization.
"Hate speech is an entry point for intolerance, discrimination and violence that can lead to terrorism," said Boy Rafli in the context of the declaration of the International Day for Countering Hate Speech, which was commemorated by the United Nations for the first time, Saturday (18/6). .
Boy said that although it has become a popular discourse due to its increasing scale, hate speech is actually not something new. It has long been recognized that there are elements in society who do this due to limited thinking or lack of ability to take care of themselves. But along with the advancement of communication technology and a new culture of social media, hate speech can be carried out massively and touch the lowest level of society on a very broad scale.
"As a result, the impact is no longer predictable. An utterance of hate may not immediately trigger a riot. It can be restrained due to the vigilance of all parties. fire and set off riots," said Boy.
Boy emphasized that there should be zero tolerance for hate speech because of its impact that can damage peace and development, become the basis of conflict and tension, and be the cause of human rights violations on a large scale.
Discussing the criticism of some people who interpret hate speech as a 'rubber term', Boy emphasized that this is not true at all. He cited the strict definition of hate speech as agreed by the United Nations (UN).
Boy said hate speech under the UN definition, is "any kind of communication in speech, writing or behavior, that attacks or uses degrading or discriminatory language with reference to a person or group based on who they are, in other words, based on religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, ancestry, gender or other identity factors".
"That's a clear definition and not rubber or can be used arbitrarily only for certain pragmatic reasons," said Boy. (bnpt, antara)
