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Why is hate speech flourishing on the Lithuanian Internet?

Why is online hate speech flourishing in Lithuania? Can these malicious comments be attributed to a post-Soviet society? Are criminal judges doing enough to clamp down on internet slanderers?

The topic in the Lithuanian media often goes unheeded.

“All Jews are crying babies. They would shut up if Hitler brought them back to the gas chambers. The world needs Hitler again to do the cleansing job,” says a comment under an article about three Nazi flags that were hoisted in celebration of Hitler’s birthday on April 20th in Lithuania’s second largest city of Kaunas.

“Expel dirty Roma people out of Lithuania. If the Lithuanian government does not drive them away, Lithuanian citizens will do it!” fumes another online commentator.

“All sleazy fags have to be slain like filthy rats. If I saw a homo talking to my son, I would strangle him with my own hands. Homos needs to get out of Lithuania and go to Brussels or Amsterdam,” another web hooligan cries out.

Until recently, online slanderers seemed to be thriving, unheeded by criminal justice.

“Although the Lithuanian Criminal Codex includes sufficient law provisions to prosecute instigators of hate and enmity, these provisions have been largely ignored by criminal judges,” admits former Vilnius County prosecutor Vitoldas Maslauskas.

According to Maslauskas, most law enforcement officials, ranging from high-level prosecutors to ordinary investigators, turn a blind eye to the practise of web hate speech for one simple reason: criminal judges are swamped under real-life infringements and do not have time to chase down internet bashers who, as a result, go untouched online.

“I am not aware of any prosecutor who, in the defense of public interest, would launch a criminal investigation into illicit activities when there are no obvious victims,” Maslauskas says.

Encouraging tolerance

However, things seem to be slowly changing for the better, as people who engage in hate speech are being muzzled more often.

Some human right activists argue that these efforts are not enough, while radicals point the finger to the Lithuanian Constitution: “Brussels’ tolerasts [red.:the word bears a derogatory phonetic resemblance to the word pederasts] need to shut up, as they violate the constitutional right of freedom of speech!”

The Lithuanian non-governmental organisation Tolerant Youth Association (TJA) is slowly but surely helping to harness the online bravado.

“Sometimes we are considered wrongly to be a gay-rights organisation, because in Lithuania encouraging tolerance is most often related to tolerance towards gay people,” says Arturas Rudomanskis, chairman of TJA. “In reality, we are working in a much larger spectrum of human rights and fighting against antisemitism, xenophobia and homophobia.”

“Although we have been actively carrying out various tolerance-inducing projects since the establishment of our association in 2005, it is only in recent years that we have been fighting against the practise of online hate speech,” Rudomanskis explains.

The association has initiated 58 pre-trial investigations this year into cases instigating hate and enmity: “It represents a rise of nearly a double compared to last year’s figure of 30-plus-something cases,” says Rudomanskis.

“Until last year, we would pinpoint online hatemongers to prosecutors. This year however, we changed our tactics by creating an autonomous system allowing people to file complaints against online bashers directly to the Prosecutor’s Office. This has undoubtedly worked out well, as conscious people extensively report hate cases to prosecutors,” Rudomanskis emphasised.

Thanks to the efforts of the Tolerant Youth Association, the online slanderers mentioned at the beginning of this article have been traced, prosecuted, and punished.

Only a few years ago, it is likely that they would have escaped the law.

Until recently, online slanderers seemed to be thriving in Lithuania, unheeded by criminal justice.

Bringing online slanderers to justice

The man instigating hate against Roma people turned out to be a 28-year-old manager of a company in the city of Utena in northeast Lithuania.

The District Court of Utena ruled that the man incited hate against Roma people and instigated to discriminate against them on the basis of their ethnicity. In his affidavit, the manager admitted the wrong doing and justified his act by arguing that he had only voiced his opinion. He received a fine of LTL 1300, which is roughly the equivalent of EUR 400.

In such cases, local courts often seize the offenders’ computers as the tools of crime. The Utena District Court decided however not to confiscate the manager’s computer.

A 36-year-old inhabitant of the town of Anyksciai, who had urged to have “all gays” slain in an online response to an article about the first-ever Lithuanian gay pride parade, whimpered at the District Court of Anyksciai explaining that he had merely intended to express his discontent against the gay march.

The judge was not impressed and punished the gay-basher with a fine of nearly EUR 400.

District prosecutor Vigandas Jurevicius admitted the case was the first of “its kind” in his career.

“I launched the investigation following a complaint by the Tolerant Youth Association. To be honest, had it not been for the complaint, I would have not sought prosecution, as it is simply impossible to keep track of the post flow on the internet,” the prosecutor acknowledged.

In the meantime, TJA chairman Arturas Rudomanskis notes that the number of more internet surfers who report online slanderers is increasing and calls for a “more substantial” involvement of Lithuanian criminal justices against online hate speech.

“Actually, we have just started the fight,” he says. “We are far away from seeing any major breakthrough just yet. However, I see much more support in Lithuanian society and in the media for online perpetrators of hate to be addressed in full force by the law.”

According to Rudomanskis, online hate speech cases that reach court break down as follows: 70 percent of the cases are related to hate against homosexuals, and the rest is equally split between antisemitic and xenophobic abuse.

“Obviously, Lithuania remains one of the most homophobic countries in the European Union. This is directly reflected in internet posts,” Rudomanskis notes.

TJA has succeeded in shutting down a gay hate-laden website www.antipederastija.info set up by a member of an ultranationalist Lithuanian organisation, as well as its Facebook page filled with anti-gay slurs.

“We can tackle the intolerance by educating our people and carrying out prevention programmes,” says Zita Zamzickiene, the Lithuanian ombudsman for Journalism Ethics.

“We have to admit that there are many angry people in Lithuania,” said Zita Zamzickiene, the Lithuanian ombudsman for Journalism Ethics. “This is partly due to our recent heritage that goes back to the Soviet era. Homosexuals and ethnic minorities, unfortunately, fall in the category of people who most often become a punching bag. We can tackle the intolerance by educating our people and carrying out prevention programmes.”

Obviously, Lithuanian journalists can play a key role in curbing internet slanderers by educating the population and promoting universal human values such as tolerance. For a small country like Lithuania that is still suffering from the post-Soviet syndrome, it may be an issue of utmost priority.

 

Tags: basher, comment, ethics, european union, hate speech, internet slanderers, justice, lithuania, ombudsman, online, online hate speech cases, online slanderers, slanderer,

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