#SiMonFilsEstGay (“If my son is gay”) made the trend on Twitter for a few days in France, prompting the country’s Minister of Women’s Rights, Najat Belkacem-Vallaud, to share her thoughts that Twitter ought to censor hate speech. According to Najat Belkacem-Vallaud, such speech is illegal according to national law, and there were other rather dividing topics that trended in the past few months such as #unjuifmort (“a dead Jew”), #unbonjuif (“a good Jew”) and #SiMaFilleRamèneUnNoir (“If my daughter brings home a Black”).
Najat Belkacem-Vallaud mentioned, “At a moment when the government is implementing an action plan against violence and discrimination committed for reasons of sexual orientation or gender identity, I want, without prejudice to any legal action, to call upon Twitter’s sense of responsibility, so that it can contribute to the prevention and the avoidance of misbehavior like this.”
Right now, we do know that newspapers and websites already fall under the purview of anti-hate speech law, so I guess this is a natural extension to include user generated content and comments which have yet to be regulated. What do you think of the move – are you in support for it?
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