What can be reported?

In the Racist content, incitement against a community category, we accept reports of content that incites hatred against a community or its member, or incites others to commit violence based on some protected feature of them. Such features may include being member of a particular national, ethnic, racial or religious group, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.

Examples

• Content posted on blogs, YouTube, other websites inciting hatred
• Offensive, degrading comments on social media platforms
• Content that publicly denies the crimes of authoritarian regimes

What happens to the report?

1. Examining the reported content: We will investigate the content at the URL or link indicated in the report, if it is still available.
2. Contacting the service provider, the social media platform: We will contact the content and/or hosting service provider and the social media platform concerned, ask for the content in question to be investigated and, if necessary, removed.
3. Contacting the reporting person: In all cases where the report is not anonymous, i.e. the reporting person has provided their email contact details, we will inform them of the action taken. If necessary, we will ask for further information or clarification.

Before filing a report, please consider the following

• Do you have a specific URL or link to the offending content that would allow us to investigate your report?
• Are you concerned by the report? Does the offending content (also) infringe some of your protected characteristic(s)?

In what situations are we unable to help?

If the matter has already been reported to the police and there is an ongoing investigation, we can only proceed once the reporting person has notified the investigation authority, which confirms that the Internet Hotline can conduct the procedure as detailed above. This is necessary because the removal of the content may compromise the success of the investigation.

Relevant legal standards

Act C of 2012 on the Criminal Code

• Section 332 Incitement Against a Community
• Section 333 Open Denial of Nazi Crimes and Communist Crimes
• Section 335 Use of Symbols of Totalitarianism