Understanding hatred on the Internet to better fight it. This is the aim of the Online Hate Observatory, an organ chaired by the CSA and created by the Avia law, adopted last June after having been emptied of its substance after the censorship of the Constitutional Council. In its launch press release, published on July 23, the CSA indicates that this observatory " is responsible for analyzing and quantifying the phenomenon of online hatred, improving understanding of its springs and dynamics, promoting the sharing of 'information and experience feedback between stakeholders '.
Many of these stakeholders have responded to help achieve these goals. The big names in the sector, such as Facebook, Google, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch and many others, will work hand in hand with specialized French associations, such as LICRA, SOS Homophobie, e-Enfance or of the Quadrature du Net. The organization will also count among its members institutions from the government, such as the State Secretariat for Digital, the Ministry of National Education, or the High Council for equality between men and women. Finally, some researchers will also take part in the debates, such as Dominique Taffin, Executive Director of the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery, Hasna Hussein, specialist in jihadist propaganda, or the sociologist Jérôme Ferret.
See you at the start of the school year
In total, more than sixty actors participated via videoconference in the inaugural meeting on July 23. Everyone was able to talk about their work in progress and express their ambitions. “ The pooling of all the skills of the players in the sector will allow us to have a much better understanding of online hate, ” enthuses Robert Ejnes, executive director of CRIF. " With this very ambitious program, we have good hopes of being able to repair this problematic of French society ".
Beyond goodwill, however, no concrete action has been announced. According to several participants of the meeting, the thematic working groups should be launched at the next meeting, at the start of the school year. The Observatory will have to face many challenges, while the Avia law had precisely polarized public opinion. The flagship measure in particular, which provided for obliging platforms to remove “manifestly illegal” content within 24 hours, was also censored for the Constitutional Council, which feared “ an attack on freedom of expression ”.