[Ict4devwg] EVERYONE MUST HELP ELIMINATE CYBER HATRED, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL

[Vern Weitzel]

Subject: EVERYONE MUST HELP ELIMINATE CYBER HATRED, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:00:11 -0400
From: UNNews <UNNews at un.org>
To: <news10 at secint00.un.org>

EVERYONE MUST HELP ELIMINATE CYBER HATRED, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL
New York, Jun 16 2009  2:00PM
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said that parents, the Internet industry and 
policy makers all have a role to play in eliminating hate speech from cyberspace.

“Some of the newest technologies are being used to peddle some of the oldest 
fears,” Mr. Ban <"http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=3927">said at a 
seminar in New York entitled “Cyberhate” – the latest in an ongoing series on 
combating intolerance, organized by the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).

“We have seen it time and again,” he said, “targeting innocents because of their 
faith, their race, their ethnicity, their sexual orientation.”

The Secretary-General said everyone has a role to play in eliminating cyber hate.

Parents have a responsibility to teach their children to safely surf the net, he 
said. The Internet industry can help ensure that hate speech does not 
proliferate online, and policy makers must “take a hard look at this problem and 
work to safeguard people while balancing basic freedoms and human rights.”

Among the other speakers scheduled for the full-day gathering were Kiyo Akasaka, 
Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information; Hemanshu 
Nigam, Chief Security Officer, News Corporation and MySpace; and Marta Santos 
Pais, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against 
Children.

The UN began the “Unlearning Intolerance” series in 2004 with discussions of 
anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and has continued the programme with lectures 
and seminars since then.
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