Regulating hate speech and harmful content online is not censorship

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights insisted on Friday that regulating hate speech and harmful content online is not censorship. It comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to end its fact-checking programme in the US.

Allowing hate speech & harmful content online has real world consequences. Regulating such content is not censorship. My Office calls for accountability & governance in the digital space, in line with human rights. pic.twitter.com/mCisUQoygU

— Volker Türk (@volker_turk) January 10, 2025

The entrepreneur announced last Tuesday that the billion-dollar company is going to end its fact-checking programme in the US, emphasising that fact-checkers ran the risk of appearing politically biased. He called for a return to freer speech on social media.

But the UN human rights chief noted in a statement that labelling efforts to create safe online spaces as “censorship… ignore(s) the fact that unregulated space means some people are silenced.” He called for accountability in the digital space.