Researcher: Chara Bakalis
One of the questions Chara Bakalis has explored in her research is how the law should approach the regulation of online hate. A view often expressed is that the law needs to ensure that ‘what is a crime offline, should be a crime online’. This view assumes that the existing legal provisions for offline hate should simply be transposed to the online world. However, Chara’s work has shown that this is not the correct approach. She has argued that the manifestation of online hate has a number of unique features that means offline provisions are not appropriate. Provision is out of date and does not take account of the latest technological developments and the rapidly changing landscape in which cyberhate occurs. Instead, her work offers a fresh approach to the regulation of online hate by creating a framework for identifying the different types of harm caused by online hate, and by demonstrating how each of these harms require a different legislative solution. Chara is currently working with the Law Commission. Her next project will be looking at the responsibility of internet companies and the liability they may have for content shared on their platforms.
