Watch our debate again, click here to access the recorded material. (Passcode: f?&2=Upw)
MDI organised an online debate on 9th October 2024 to discuss AI and freedom of expression.
Online hate speech has been on the rise since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent escalation of the Israel-Gaza conflict. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue found a 43-fold increase in anti-Muslim comments on YouTube worldwide after 7 October 2023, and a recent report commissioned by the Media Diversity Institute (MDI) found a 359% increase in online antisemitic keywords from 1 October to 31 December 2023.
The questions we asked our speakers and our audience are:
- What are big online tech companies doing to tackle hate speech?
- Are they doing too much or too little?
- Are they doing it competently?
- Can they create the perfect algorithm?
When it comes to sensitive issues such as religious content, should they err on the side of free speech or more regulation, which some would call censorship? Are long-term solutions such as education and sharing effective enough to combat hate speech when millions of negative posts are shared every day and need to be responded to?
Our speakers were:
- Eric Heinze, Professor of Law at Queen Mary, University of London and author of ‘The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech is Everything’
- Dr Damian Tambini, Distinguished Policy Fellow, Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) , co-editor of ‘Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple’
- Dr Ed Bracho-Polanco, Senior Lecturer in Communication at University of Westminster, and Coordinator of the Doctoral Research Development at the Communications and Media Research Institute in (CAMRI).
The panel was moderated by Milica Pesic, Media Diversity Institute Executive Director.
For more information contact our communications team: [email protected]
This online debate was organised as a contribution to the International Ministerial on Religious Freedom, hosted this year by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development on the theme of “Freedom of Religion or Belief and Artificial Intelligence”. The purpose of MDI Online Debate was to enlighten and inform the Ministerial, which took place in Berlin on 10-11 October 2024.
