'Hate speech on the rise'

The South African Human Rights Commission has reported an increase in the number of complaints related to racist posts on social media.

HRC spokesman Isaac Mangena said the racist insults came from each and every group.

Said Mangena: "We've seen the increasing use of the K-word and also violations and threats against minority races."

He said social media opened the door to irresponsible or hateful speech.

He said: "We note that the phenomenon [of rising racism] is exacerbated by irresponsible use of social media and is increasing globally.

"This has caused the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to convene a team of experts to provide guidelines for assessing hate speech, a common offence on social media.

"The Rabat principles which were subsequently developed by the UN are extremely helpful in assessing the nature of offences and whether they constitute hate speech, particularly in the South African context where race-based interactions between users of social media often takes the form of hate speech."

He said when social media is abused, the opportunity to engage in an open but constructive debate of race or race-related issues is lost and "instead [people] often tend to veer towards conduct which may attract criminal and civil sanctions".

SA Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande last week called on publishers to more actively regulate racist online comments, saying 'there is too much racism and hate speech on the internet'.

A Twitter user has offered a reward to identify a Pretoria man who has posted "murderous racist tweets".

But the Twitter user wants his own identity protected due to the "venomous nature" of the tweets.

He would not disclose the amount he would give those who revealed the man's residential or work address. He claimed the information would be given to the police, so that criminal charges could be pressed against this man for his " totally unacceptable " tweets, which include "One settler, one bullet " and "Tym [sic] to braai the Boers".

The South African Human Rights Commission said it had not received any complaints regarding the tweets.