On the occasion of the European Development Days 2022, ECES was selected to have a stand to showcase our activities under the theme of the Internet and Human Rights in the Digital Space. Our stand focuses on "Media Monitoring, Hate Speech and Gender-based Violence" taken from an election perspective. On this occasion, we have produced a paper to illustrate during the event our experiences on the matter.
In particular, hate speech on social media and other platforms is known to catalyze environments of conflict and violence among groups and communities during elections. Indeed, hate speech targeted gender-based violence in the digital space is increasingly becoming a threat to the inclusive participation of women in electoral and political life. At ECES we work to strengthen the capacities of our partners to identify and monitor hate speech and gender-based violence and recommend appropriate remedial measures.
To that end, this paper highlights our work in the last 12 years in preventing and mitigating electoral violence through two important tools: the Monitoring of Hate speech in mainstream and social media, and the Early Warning and Early Response systems in the electoral context.
We hope that this publication will contribute to facilitating a better understanding of the impact of hate speech from an electoral perspective, whilst at the same time highlighting important tools that make use of the digital space to help mitigate and prevent electoral violence.
