Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo

“gypsy”. Yet another example is the Facebook page of the nationalist and xenophobic
group “Resistenza Nazionale – National Resistance” 370 .
The Facebook groups “Put an end to racism on Facebook” and “Shed light on racism” 371
are the only ones that operate an almost daily monitoring of racist groups and profiles
on this social network in Italy. Both of them have compiled different lists that always
include at least a hundred groups to report to the administrator. These lists, sadly,
never seem to get any shorter, as the groups are reopened the moment they get shut
down. Lunaria in turn singled out around 120 Facebook groups and profiles for their
racist and xenophobic content and signaled their presence to Unar and the
communications fraud squad (Polizia Postale) in May 2011. Another such check‐up
undertaken by the same organization drew attention to 106 Facebook groups and
profiles with a similar content.
In a joint statement in March 2010, ECRI 372 , ODIHR 373 and FRA 374 commissions
(belonging respectively to the Council of Europe, OSCE and the European Union)
sounded the alarm and recommended the adoption of decisive measures to counter
racism and xenophobia with particular reference to the internet: “Our organizations are
alarmed by ʺracist patterns of behaviour such as the ever‐increasing use of the internet
by racist groups for the purposes of recruitment, radicalisation, coordination and
control, as well as for the intimidation and discrimination of opponents”, According to
the European organisations these views must be firmly challenged while being careful
not to jeopardize freedom of expression. The statements continues: “Nonetheless, we
strongly believe in the internet’s huge potential for overcoming bias and prejudice
based on attributes such as race, colour, language, nationality or religion. This potential
should be fully exploited”. 375 Civil society is asked “to explore ways of taking
advantage of the popularity of social networks in order to fight racism” as well as
keeping an eye out for expressions of racist and xenophobic hatred, while the internet
industry “should play an active role in addressing the issue of hatred online, by
developing and implementing effective solutions while respecting freedom of
expression”.
The need to report and take down Facebook pages and other racist blogs and websites,
prompts us to advocate a reflection on the need to adapt the Mancino law, dating back
to 1993, to new investigative requirements, as well as a revision of the Convention on
Cyber Crime (introducing the possibility of prosecuting the authors of racist or
xenophobic messages on the internet but also extending it to servers and web
providers). Greater cooperation between the Polizia Postale and the judiciary
authorities is furthermore desirable, alongside an active involvement of the companies
that run the social networks in the prevention of, and struggle against, racism.
370 This group is still open and very active, as is the personal profile of the owner. They work unhindered, posting new racist
articles and images every day. (www.facebook.com/PROTESILAO and www.facebook.com/pages/RESISTENZA-
NAZIONALE/207255759306262 and resistenzanazionale.com/)
371 http://it-it.facebook.com/pages/Segnaliamo-il-Razzismo/206498321130.
372 European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe.
373 Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights – ODIHR .
374 Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union.
375 19/03/2010. Joint statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – 21 March 2010
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/library/pressreleases/62-21_03_2010_en.asp.
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