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The Web of Data’s Role in Legal Ecosystems to Address Violent Extremism Fuelled by Hate Speech in Social Media

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AI Approaches to the Complexity of Legal Systems XI-XII (AICOL 2020, AICOL 2018, XAILA 2020)

Abstract

It is usually said that technical solutions should operate ethically, in compliance with the law and subject to good governance principles. In this position paper we face the problem of behavioural compliance and law enforcement in the case of hate speech and extremism online. Law enforcement and behavioural compliance are ways of coping with the objective of stopping the spread of hate and radicalisation online. We contend that a combination of regulatory instruments, incentives, training, proactive self-awareness and education can be effective to create legal ecosystems to improve the present situation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination entered into force on January 4th 1969 [15]. It has been ratified by 88 states. The Convention also requires its parties to outlaw hate speech and criminalize membership in racist organizations. USA ratified the Convention, but upon ratification, it stated the following reservations: “1. That the Constitution and laws of the United States contain extensive protections of individual freedom of speech, expression and association. Accordingly, the United States does not accept any obligation under this Convention, in particular under articles 4 and 7, to restrict those rights, through the adoption of legislation or any other measures, to the extent that they are protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States. 2. That the Constitution and laws of the United States establish extensive protections against discrimination, reaching significant areas of non-governmental activity. Individual privacy and freedom from governmental interference in private conduct, however, are also recognized as among the fundamental values which shape our free and democratic society. […] 3. That with reference to article 22 of the Convention, before any dispute to which the United States is a party may be submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice under this article, the specific consent of the United States is required in each case.” Cfr. https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-2&chapter=4&lang=en#EndDec.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partially funded by the Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre (D2D CRC, Australia) (http://www.d2dcrc.com.au/), and Meta-Rule of Law (DER2016-78108-P, Spain). Views expressed herein are however not necessarily representative of the views held by the funders. A former and shorter version of this work was presented at TERECOM@Jurix 2018, pp. 135–134 http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2309/11.pd.

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Oboler, A., Casanovas, P. (2021). The Web of Data’s Role in Legal Ecosystems to Address Violent Extremism Fuelled by Hate Speech in Social Media. In: Rodríguez-Doncel, V., Palmirani, M., Araszkiewicz, M., Casanovas, P., Pagallo, U., Sartor, G. (eds) AI Approaches to the Complexity of Legal Systems XI-XII. AICOL AICOL XAILA 2020 2018 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13048. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89811-3_16

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