UNESCO to team up with MIDO to tackle hate speech

22 August 2015
UNESCO to team up with MIDO to tackle hate speech
A girl watches the website of CNN at a internet cafe in Yangon, Myanmar. Photo: EPA

UNESCO in Myanmar teamed up with the Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO) to address a hate speech issue, according to a press release out on August 21. 
Supported by UNESCO’s International Program for the Development of Communication (IPDC)—the multilateral forum in the UN system designed to promote media development in developing countries—UNESCO and MIDO will monitor, analyze and disseminate information about hate speech in Myanmar.
The rise of hate speech has often been noted as a precursor of violence.  Although there is growing recognition that potential violence can be mitigated by limiting such speech, only limited knowledge of hate speech has been available in Myanmar. Particularly in online space, few steps have been taken to address issues of hate speech and harassment even though online space should provide civil society a chance to learn alternative viewpoints, develop relationships, and promote inter-communal harmony. Understanding how hate speech creates tensions in society is essential to develop effective strategies to curb the hate speech and its potential negative impacts.
UNESCO and MIDO envision that people in Myanmar develop mature online culture and they speak out in favour of peace and against pro-violence movement. In the short-term, UNESCO and MIDO are seeking to increase public and civil society awareness of responsible online practices and to mobilize public interest and develop public capacity to promote safe online space and handle hate speech issues.
The programme consists of three lines of action: monitoring hate speech, implementing response strategies, and conducting trainings regarding safe online space. Through MIDO’s existing and prospective networks, UNESCO and MIDO will monitor social media and online media. At the same time, the project team will deploy rapid as well as long-term response strategies to counter hostile contents. MIDO is already collaborating with Facebook to develop a Myanmar-specific reporting system. Furthermore, there will be trainings to promote responsible use of the internet among civil society organizations.
Over the last two years MIDO has been working on hate and speech issues both online and offline through research projects and campaign. Particularly members of MIDO have played a significant role in the Pan Zagar (flower speech) campaign—a movement which monitors and reports hate speech on sites like Facebook in Myanmar.