Report: Preventing “Torrents of Hate” or Stifling Free Expression Online?

This report provides a factual insight into the number of deleted comments and the extent to which these comments are either illegal or contain elements such as hate speech or derogatory language. Overall, the report shows that a very small percentage of deleted comments are illegal, with the majority being general expressions of opinion.

The creation of the report is the result of a collaboration between Future of Free Speech, Analyse&Tal, and Common Consultancy. Using an advanced data setup, we monitored over 1,275,000 comments on social media in Sweden, France, and Germany. As a result, we identified 43,497 deleted comments over a 14-day period. Legal experts and native speakers subsequently coded samples of the data for legality and content, providing a unique insight into both the extent and nature of the deleted comments.

Since illegal comments constitute a relatively limited phenomenon on social media, deleting comments will not address the more fundamental challenges these platforms pose to society. On the contrary, it is necessary to create transparency around moderation criteria. Civil society and other actors must find ways to foster better digital conversations.