Are Recent Governmental Initiatives to Combat Online Hate Speech, Extremism and Fraudulent News Consistent with the International Human Rights Law Regime?

This Essay examines the European Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online and the German Network Enforcement Act (known as NetzDG) to assess whether they are compliant with freedom of expression standards in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Essay concludes that they contain a variety of problems, including vague prohibitions and a failure to use the least intrusive means to achieve legitimate governmental objectives. The Essay calls for multi-stakeholder discussions to assess ways of achieving legitimate governmental objectives without broad speech bans. This Essay first appeared as part of a compilation of essays in a Special Report by Stanford University’s Global Digital Policy Incubator & the Centre for International Governance Innovation: Governance Innovation for a Connected World: Protecting Free Expression, Diversity and Civic Engagement in the Global Digital Ecosystem, p. 29-35 (2018); the full report is available at