What are the difficulties presented by trying to balance hate speech Essay

What are the difficulties presented by trying to balance hate speech laws with the concept of free speech - Essay Example Hate speech cannot be looked at as an invitation to politely have a talk or a chat since it is mainly aimed at ambushing the victim, insulting them and silencing them at the same time. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that campuses where highly publicized incidence of hate speech have taken place report a decrease in the number of minority enrollment since the students that are considered to be of colour decide to attend the schools that have an environment that is safer from them. Hate speech has reached proportions that are very high lately in the schools and colleges with many of the victims being subjected to threats on the grounds of their race, gender, ethnicity, religion or their sexual orientation and many of the victims have experienced this attacks more than once. In response to this situation that is getting out of control, some of the universities have had to put some regulations in place that forbids speech that assaults the ethnic minorities and other groups that are vulnerable. Individuals have also been subjected to punishment when their behavior becomes an obstacle to the educational opportunity that another person has been able to acquire. These policies have been the source of debates that are heated and far-reaching discourse on how practical they are. In the Article 19 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, there is an explicit recognition of the need to protect free expression and this shows that the principle of free speech is fundamentally important (Warburton, 2009, p. 1). When this this freedom is not protected, it can be very fragile to deal with and will lead to various situations that might get out of hand and the original idea of the First Amendment was to stop the central government from being able to make intrusions as far as this area is concerned. It aims at