Section 4. Special Program: Actively Responding to the Spread of Hate Speech A. Overview 1) Background Hostility against foreigners and migrant workers began to surface in 2010 mainly led by antimulticulturalism online communities, and the term hate speech came to be known in earnest in 2012 when cruel and derogatory remarks exchanged in online communities aroused concern. As hate speech intensified over the murder of a woman near Gangnam Subway Station in 2016 and over asylum-seekers from Yemen on Jeju Island in 2018, hatred emerged as a major social issue. According to recent studies, seven to eight out of every ten citizens in Korea were found to have experienced expressions of hatred. These expressions of hatred mostly target minorities such as women, persons with disabilities, migrants and refugees, and sexual minorities based on biases and prejudice, and they continue to penetrate deeper into everyday life across all corners of society. Hate speech functions as an instrument that reproduces greater discrimination against social minorities. According to experts, a combination of factors triggers the spread of hatred, from the sociocultural context of biases against social minorities to the economic context of inequality, mass media that circulates hatred, and the political context. They also warn that such hatred is likely to boil over and explode in the form of violence or crime. Violence and hate crimes motivated by biases against certain groups are on the increase around the world and point to the need to actively redress hatred. No social consensus has yet been reached and no standards have yet been set up regarding the notion of hate speech. As such, the definitions of hate speech and hate crimes vary from one country to another along with their related regulatory methods. In 2016, we conducted the Factual Survey on Hate Speech and Regulatory Measures in order to identify the actual state of hate speech and the public's awareness of it. Based on the results of this survey, we finalized Actively Responding to the Spread of Hate Speech as the special program in November 2017 during the process of crafting the 5th phase of the Human Rights Promotion Action Plan. 74 Commission's Major Activities