Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca decries hate speech in the wake of migrant riots

Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said that Malta should be doing everything possible to stamp out ever-growing hate speech on social media

Former president Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca
Former president Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca

Hate speech expressed on social media is a blatant abuse of freedom of expression and should be condemned, former President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said. 

Coleiro Preca took to Facebook herself to censure the hate speech that followed the Hal Far open centre riots which story was ubiquitous on social media in the past few days.

"In a full and effective democracy, the right to freedom of expression is sacred. However, fomenting hatred is an abuse of this right and transgression of the human rights of others," the former president wrote.

Coleiro Preca insisted on the importance of educating a proper use of social media and that in an ever-changing world that centred around the written word on social forums, ethical use of the medium was more important than ever.

"When used as a weapon, social media gives rise to hate speech and I firmly believe that as a nation we should be doing everything possible to stamp this out," she said.

Comments that were doing the rounds on social media ranged from praise for Lorin Scicluna and Francesco Fenech, two young soldiers charged with the murder of Lassana Cisse Souleymane in Hal Far—an uprecedented racially-motivated attack—to promoting Nazi Germany's politics.