Young Roma against antigypsyism online: 245 hate cases, 10 criminal filings, recommendations to the Czech Government

The publications are the result of an innovative initiative showing how Romani people can actively defend their rights by documenting those who disseminate racialized hatred online and filing criminal complaints about them. The project in the Czech Republic was organized by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), the Forum for Human Rights, and the ROMEA organization.

The first publication, Challenging Digital Antigypsyism in the Czech Republic, describes how the Romani volunteers recorded and reported 245 separate cases of racist speech against Roma online, of varying degrees of seriousness, between the spring of 2022 and the summer of 2023. “Many of the comments circulated anti-Romani stereotypes, while a significant number focused on refugees and Romani people (including attacks on Romani Ukrainian refugees). Much of the most disturbing hate speech targeted Roma in the context of the Second World War and included comments calling for the annihilation of Roma, Holocaust denial, and expressing sympathy with Nazi ideology,” the organizations said in a joint press release made available to news server Romea.cz.

Criminal complaints were filed against 10 social media users for their online antigypsyism. “So far, one perpetrator has been put on probation for eight months and ordered to remove the content by the public prosecutor; another criminal complaint was classed as a misdemeanor offense and the perpetrator fined; one was dismissed; while the rest are awaiting further action from the police,” the organizations said.

“I think this project is really important because it shows how dangerous the Internet can be. I am really surprised there is so much hate speech against Romani people,” said Veronika Banová, a Romani volunteer and law student at the University of West Bohemia, “especially when Romani refugees from Ukraine are coming to the Czech Republic. It needs to be reported more, and social media sites should control it more. I think there need to be more projects like this one.”

The second publication, Prosecuting Digital Antigypsyism: A Policy Guide for the Czech Republic, contains recommendations to the Interior Ministry, law enforcement and public prosecutors on how to better address hate speech towards Roma online. It advocates for a proactive approach to dealing with online hate speech by state actors, including standardizing police procedures when evaluating reported hate speech, plugging certain legislative gaps, coordinating more effectively across state agencies, and acting on the need for continuous education, the creation of preventive programs, the involvement of Romani communities, and the engagement of other relevant stakeholders.

“The document highlights the discrepancy between the volume of hate speech discovered online by Romani activists and the relatively small number of legal actions taken against the perpetrators,” added the organizations involved. The Romani activists are also pointing out the wide acceptance online of discriminatory content and hate speech that does not rise to the level of a crime, but does create a racist, toxic environment nevertheless, one that can lead to real-world violence.

According to the press release, the ERRC has long been exposing the link between hate speech online and anti-Romani violence, and emphasizes that a lack of legal ramifications encourages racist Internet users to disseminate hate both offline and online. “By documenting the various types of hate speech and the ways Internet users take advantage of the apparent anonymity of online spaces, as well as addressing them through all available channels, projects such as this put Roma at the center of challenging online hate speech and the threat it poses to democratic societies,” the ERRC says.