Every year I donate SEK 10,000 to charity as a Christmas gift instead of giving something to my clients (who are usually in the public sector and are not allowed to accept gifts). This year the gift goes to Näthatsgranskaren (a Swedish organisation reporting online hate), a non-profit association that works to clear out the worst excesses in discussions on social media. Freedom of expression goes a long way, but you actually cannot say just anything in just any way.
This is how they themselves explain their mission:
What does Näthatsgranskaren want to achieve?
We want to improve the conditions for democratic conversation in Sweden by counteracting online hate crime in a strategic and effective way and making it visible. We hope that the work we put into reporting crimes, and our commitment, will contribute to fewer hate crimes and a safer environment on social media.
We also want to create debate on the following issues:1. Hate and threats on social media. What does it look like? Who spreads it and why? How does it affect our society?
2. Our legislation. How can it be used to limit this kind of crime? And how can we increase knowledge of what the legal text actually means?
3. Police and prosecutors. How do they work with these crimes today? What can be improved?
They have reported over 800 suspected crimes to the police, many have led to convictions, and the proportion of successful prosecutions is increasing. They also highlight the differences in how the legislation is applied in different parts of the country and work for better application of the law.
The ability to have constructive conversations on social media becomes more and more important the greater the share of public conversation that takes place there, and that is why Näthatsgranskaren’s work is so important.
Previous recipients of the Christmas gift are Wikimedia Sweden 2017 and Musikhjälpen (a Swedish charity fundraising event) in Örebro 2016.