Online Hate Speech in the Time of the Covid-19 Crisis and Challenges for Serbian Criminal Justice System

Abstract

The author presents the results of research on how young people from three multicultural regions of Serbia perceive hate speech on the Internet, as well as their experiences when it comes to hate speech on the Internet during the crisis with the COVID-19 virus. After that, analyzing the conclusions of the research conducted within the project ' Combating discrimination, online hate speech and toxic narratives in multicultural regions of Serbia ', the author gives an overview of criminal law provisions that sanction hate speech in the Republic of Serbia, and then gives certain recommendations for amendments of criminal law with the aim to adequately respond to the current state of hate speech, with a special focus on online hate speech, and to provide adequate and equal protection for all groups that most often occur as victims of hate speech in Republic of Serbia.