Hate Watch 2019 is a blog that monitors hate speech by senior politicians and those holding high office, as well as their supporters, during the ongoing campaigning to Parliamentary elections. The period we are focusing on is March-May 2019, just before ECI announced the calendar for the elections on 11th March (and the model code of conduct kicked in) to just after the completion of the process and announcement of results, 26th May 2019.
The objectiveis to identify hate speech by those in positions of authority and track
how hate messages are constructed and amplified through network of hate sites; and how they influence recipients. The purpose is to build a body evidence on hate speech in this period of heightened political campaigning; and to act as ‘early warning system’, passing on findings to authorities to take appropriate action.
Outputs we plan are blogposts, being our findings and analysis, updated weekly, and sharing actionable information with the authorities for them to take action – Election Commission of India, Press Council of India, as well as the Internet intermediaries (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, among others), also tracking their actions.
By hate speech we mean statements that are clearly communal, casteist, or are calls to violence. Some of these will qualify for action under laws that cover hate speech – Section 295A (outraging religious feeling), Section 153 (promoting enmity between groups) or Section 505 (making statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 123 (3A) of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, (promotion of hatred on grounds of religion, caste, during campaigning), as well as Sections 69A and Sections 79 Sec (3) (b) of Information Technology Act. 2000 and Sections 79 of Information Technology Rules 2011 (relating to duties of Internet intermediaries to prevent the spread of hate content from the Internet). We also include comments that may not directly be communal but are clearly “dog whistling” – loaded against a community or religion in an indirect or coded way.
The methodology we use is:We identify, through crowdsourcing, reported cases of hate speech (on TV, online, print/newspapers) by senior politicians (MPs, MLAs, chief ministers and others contesting elections, as well as those holding high offices, like party leaders and governors), documenting and referencing each incident. We then factcheck these for authenticity, using existing fact checking tools and facilities. Finally, we monitor social media platforms and TV channels to see how hate speech by the public figures is picked up and amplified by their supporters through media channels. We will also track actions by Authorities to our alerting them to hate speech, and what the trend there is.
Hate Watch 2019 