UN Chief calls for establishment of "guardrails" to prevent hate speech

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for establishment of "guardrails" to prevent hate speech, extremism and misinformation.

Addressing a ceremony to mark the Holocaust in New York, he regretted that "misinformation, paranoid conspiracy theories, and unchecked hate speech" are rampant.

The UN Chief warned that social media platforms and their advertisers are complicit in moving extremism to the mainstream, turning many parts of the Internet into toxic waste dumps for hate and vicious lies.

He said people are living in a world in which an economic crisis is breeding discontent while populist demagogues are using the crisis to win votes.