Though the Internet has universally been recognized as a critical enabler of free expression and by extension, a powerful aid in the pursuit of social and economic progress, much of the Internet’s speech platforms are plagued by hate-driven hostilities that translate to mindless abuse, intimidation, and harassment of its users. Besides lending a chilling effect to free expression online, the pervasiveness of such hostilities has been known to play a role in the commission of acts of real-world violence, making this a particularly important issue in contemporary public policy.

Against this backdrop, SFLC​.in is organizing this roundtable discussion. The discussion will comprise relevant stakeholder-representatives including from the user community, industry, civil society, and Government. Special emphasis will be laid on identifying and limiting hateful and harassing content at the intermediary level, existing reportage and redress mechanisms, shortcomings of these mechanisms, and potential remedies to these shortcomings. The discussion will also explore the adoption of binding protocols by online intermediaries to limit such content on their networks.