#22 Australia's failure to protect against gendered hate speech - with Dr Anjalee de Silva
Description
Today, on international women’s day, I am speaking with Dr Anjalee de Silva, a postdoctoral fellow at with the Melbourne Law School node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. Anjalee is an expert in administrative, anti-discrimination, and free speech and media law and theory, with a focus on harmful speech and its regulation. Her PhD examined vilifying speech directed at and about women, and the role that law could play in regulating, deterring and mitigating those harmful forms of speech.
Today’s conversation is wide-ranging, examining how gendered hate speech effects women, communities and democracy, but also revealing its functions – the silencing and subordination of women. Anjalee’s illustration of this latter point, the function that gendered hate speech serves, was articulated better than I have heard elsewhere, and it will inform work I am doing in mental health related vilification, so thanks Anjalee. But more central to today, the episode is a reminder of the work ahead of us – both legislative and cultural – to re-order society on a more equal basis.
Shownotes:
The following from Dr de Silva:
- A report on gendered hate speech
- A longer form article in the Melbourne Uni Law Rev [open access]
- An article on the need for a response by digital platforms
Information on MP Fiona Patten's 2019 anti-vilification Bill.
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