The Centre for Independent Journalism warns that hate speech "diverts attention from solution-focused thinking" and undermines democracy.
This statement was originally published on cijmalaysia.net on 29 July 2023.
The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), in collaboration with the University of Nottingham Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah and Universiti Sains Malaysia is conducting a hate speech monitoring project for the upcoming 2023 Malaysian state elections.
Based on our experience, especially following the monitoring of the 15th General Election last November, CIJ and our partners expect that hate speech and dissemination of disinformation will continue to intensify especially on social media. These tactics continue to be frequently used by politicians and other key actors to control narratives and influence public understanding of key issues as a means of influencing voter decisions. The weaponising of inflammatory tropes and rhetoric distracts and diverts attention from solution-focused thinking, and these narrowing political interests do not serve our democracy.
The monitoring will focus on the severity of hate speech surrounding sensitive issues like 3R (race, religion, royalty) and gender; and those targeted at specific groups such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) people and refugees and migrants. Our aim with the “Say No to Hate Speech” monitoring, which commenced on 24 July and will continue until 20 August 2023, is to monitor the following actors: politicians, political parties, media, government agencies and key opinion leaders – to identify patterns and trends on how their hate narrative impacts or increases the potential harm against individuals and communities at risk. The monitoring will also include the identification of Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviours (CIB) such as bots and cybertroopers.
The severity of hate speech will be classified within the following levels:
Level 1 – Disagreement or non-offensive language or content
Level 2 – Offensive or discriminatory language or content
Level 3 – Dehumanising or hostile language or content
Level 4 – Language or content that includes incitement or a call for violence.
Please refer to our dashboard for more information on the 88 actors being monitored at the moment on Facebook, X (formally Twitter) and TikTok.
CIJ will also be partnering with Architects of Diversity, Beyond Borders, Justice for Sisters, KRYSS Network, North South Initiative, Sisters in Islam, Pusat Komas and Persatuan Sahabat Wanita to initiate an alerts system built on our monitoring data which will trigger rapid responses when a particular hate speech or content reaches a high severity level and requires an immediate response or action in a timely manner. This will also include lodging reports to the social media platforms and providing resources to the media and public on combating hate speech.
We would also like to announce our collaboration with Malaysiakini as our media partner to enhance the reporting and communications of trends and severity of hate speech prevalent on related social media during the monitoring period.
We want our resources to be accessible and also encourage public participation against the use of hate speech during the state election period. Relatedly, we are launching the “Say No to Hate Speech” portal which will include a dashboard where the media and public will have access to the data collected from our daily monitoring.
Most importantly, we encourage the public to be attentive and responsible in upholding their freedom of expression and speech during this election period and contribute to the countering of hate speech by reporting hate speech on social media via the Reporting Portal.
For more information, visit our “Say No to Hate” Monitoring Portal which will go live tomorrow.
