Hate Speech, Genocide, and Revisiting the Marketplace of Ideas in the Digital Age
![handle is hein.journals/luclj43 and id is 287 raw text is: LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO SCHOOL OF LAW
2011 LAW JOURNAL CONFERENCE
APRIL 8, 2011
Hate Speech, Genocide, and Revisiting the
Marketplace of Ideas in the Digital Age
Remarks of Karen Eltis*
I would like to thank the organizers of the Conference, particularly
Kenneth Marcus and Alexander Tsesis, for the gracious invitation to
speak to what is undoubtedly one of the most pressing themes
commanding our attention-hate speech, incitement, and genocide.
This Symposium comes at a time when historical truth struggles to
endure in the face of attacks insidiously couched in human rights
rhetoric. For example, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
recurring and unequivocal assertions that Israel should be wiped off
the map,' an incitement to ultimately commit genocide,2 was-not
coincidentally-tactically justified in human rights terms, as freedom of
expression, inter alia.3 These occurrences are by no means isolated.
Rather, they echo similar calls for the Jewish state's annihilation during
* Karen Eltis is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa and a Visiting
Scholar and Associate Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School. Her research focuses
primarily on Internet law and policy and comparative constitutional law. This talk was given on
April 8, 2011, at the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal's 2011 Annual Conference, the
subject of which was Hate Speech, Incitement & Genocide.
1. Ewen MacAskill & Chris McGreal, Israel Should Be Wiped Off Map, Says Iran's
President, GUARDIAN, Oct. 27, 2005, at 17, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/
0.12858,1601413,00.html.
2. Such an incitement was in violation of several international treaties and conventions. See,
e.g., U.N. Charter art. 2, para. 4 (All members shall resolve their international disputes by
peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not
endangered.); Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, G.A.
Res. 260(111)(A), U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess.. 179th plen. mtg.. at 174. U.N. Doc. A/810 (Dec. 9. 1948)
(stating that genocide is an act that shall be punishable); Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court. art. 33, para. 2, July 17. 1998, 2187 U.N.T.S. 3 ([O]rders to commit genocide or
crimes against humanity are manifestly unlawful.).
3. See Holocaust Denial Sparks Outrage, BBC NEWS (Dec. 14, 2005, 6:15 PM),
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle-east/4529198.stm (Mr. Ahmadinejad made the
comments while speaking on live TV in the south-eastern city of Zahedan. 'They have created a
myth today that they call the massacre of Jews and they consider it a principle above God,
religions and the prophets . . . .).
267](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/luclj43&div=11&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Hate Speech, Genocide, and Revisiting the Marketplace of Ideas in the Digital Age
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