PhD defence
Countering online hate speech: How to adequately protect fundamental rights?
- E. Vaz Rodrigues Da Nave
- Date
- Thursday 3 July 2025
- Time
- Location
-
Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden
Supervisor(s)
- Prof.dr.mr. S. van der Hof
- Prof.dr. T.E. McGonagle
Summary
Today, almost 5 billion people communicate through social media online platforms. Easy access, large audience sizes, anonymity, and instantaneous publication of content all contribute to expeditious information spread and suggest new tools for large-scale influence. The benefits of online communication are undeniable. Concomitantly, we witness the proliferation of hate speech on online platforms, already linked in certain cases with an increase in offline violence. Online platforms have developed self-regulatory polices to counter hate speech which often remain opaque, lack democratic enforcement and remedy mechanisms.
This thesis builds on a critical conceptualization of online hate speech deriving from the European regulatory and policy framework, to investigate and propose legal avenues for the strengthening of the responsibilities of online platforms to counter online hate speech whilst upholding fundamental rights. More specifically, this thesis seeks to: 1) advance the legal conceptualization of hate speech; 2) systematize legal responsibilities of online platforms when regulating hate speech; 3) propose and evaluate, from a human rights perspective, new mitigation and enforcement designs; and, 4) study remedy mechanisms compliant with human rights law. This thesis aims to strengthen the corporate responsibilities of online platforms to countering online hate speech in a human rights compliant manner.
PhD dissertations
Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.
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General information
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