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Facebook’s Dilemmas With Hate Speech, Fake Speech And Free Speech
By Sarah Joseph, Monash University If Facebook was an experiment in creating a true “marketplace of ideas,” the results are disappointing, naively utopian and sometimes dangerous. Yet the platform has no easy solution for the daunting problem of moderating its two billion subscribers. Social media provides an unprecedented mechanism for all people — or at…
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The Khashoggi report to the UN Human Rights Council and the Rights to Life of Journalists
On Wednesday, 25 June, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings and Summary Executions, Agnes Callamard, presented her annual report to the UN Human Rights Council, including the widely anticipated results of her inquiry into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Turkey in October 2018. Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist…
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Hakeem Al-Araibi’s case is a test of world soccer’s human rights credentials. Here’s why
By Sarah Joseph Hakeem Al-Araibi’s case has become a crucial test of world football’s commitment to human rights. (picture – AAP/EPA Diego Azubel) Hakeem Al-Araibi is a refugee from Bahrain who plays semi-professional soccer in Melbourne for Pascoe Vale. He is a former member of the Bahraini national football team. He is currently detained in Thailand, the…
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As the US leaves the UN Human Rights Council, it may leave more damage in its wake
By Sarah Joseph US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have announced the US was withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council (“HRC”). In doing so, they claimed the council was a roadblock to genuine global human rights protection. This move by the Trump administration has been…
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Roseanne’s implosion: when art, freedom of speech and social media collide
By Sarah Joseph Another one bites the dust. In posting a racist tweet that resulted in the US network ABC summarily cancelling her show, Roseanne Barr joins a long line of people who have blown up their career with a social media post. And, as is always the case with such episodes, a prominent strand…
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Is Facebook’s business model compatible with human rights?
by Sarah Joseph Facebook’s actions – or inactions – facilitated breaches of privacy and human rights associated with democratic governance. EPA/Peter DaSilva Sarah Joseph, Monash University Facebook has had a bad few weeks. The social media giant had to apologise for failing to protect the personal data of millions of users from being accessed by…
Castan Centre for Human Rights Law 