“Terrorist” and “Islamist-whore” are among the words Nilofar Nori (22) has been called when she was active as a youth politician, community debater and local politician for SV at home in Melbu in Vesterålen. – The incitement was based a lot on the fact that I am a Muslim and wear a hijab, she says. In comments on Facebook, she also heard various claims, such as that she entered politics to weaken the Norwegian security system or secretly Islamise Hadsel municipality. – It was very difficult. I often felt that I had to have an extra surplus to tolerate all the excitement. As I didn’t have the surplus, I avoided expressing myself in, for example, the local newspaper. In January this year, Nori retired from local politics and started in the youth organization Changemaker. – It was because I wanted to work with something else. Changemaker was a great place where I could use my commitment and have a larger environment around me when I get those comments. Will extend the area of responsibility to PST One third of all hate speech on the internet is directed at Muslims. This is shown in a report that came out last week from Nordic Safe Cities. Over the course of two years, they have followed the Facebook pages of politicians, the media, public figures and various debate sites, and scanned 10 million comments. Women are the second largest group to receive hate online. They receive almost 17 percent of the hate speech. – Unfortunately, this is not surprising, says AUF leader Astrid Hoem. She believes this is a democratic problem, which also affects freedom of expression. AUF therefore believes that the responsibility of the Police’s security service should also apply to politically exposed persons outside the Storting and the government. Leader of AUF Astrid Hoem believes we must move on from just talking about incitement in the debate, to discussing what we can do quite concretely. Photo: Ismail Burak Akkan / news – We must move on Today, PST is responsible for assessing threats against representatives of parliament, members of the government, the royal house and the Supreme Court. In addition, PST has an extra mission to look after the 90 central board members in the youth party. But they have no responsibility for social debaters. Regardless of whether it is local politicians who receive threats, or young people who experience harassment after writing their first reader post. – We believe that the mandate must be extended to social debaters and local politicians who can experience just as much harassment as a parliamentary politician, but who do not receive the same follow-up afterwards, says Hoem. – What do they think PST should do? – Check threats you have received, make security assessments around people who get a lot of harassment. We do know that some public debaters receive so many threats that there is an insurance risk in their everyday life and lives. She believes that we have been talking about incitement in the social debate for several years without doing anything concrete about it. – We need to get a little further from just discussing the wording and the heat in the debate, which I think everyone agrees on, to actually start discussing what we can do quite concretely to overcome it. Proposal submitted to the Storting On behalf of the party, Storting representative Lan Marie Berg (MDG) has submitted a proposal to the Storting to, among other things, extend the mandate of PST. – It will give those who are appointed more security. Because then they know that someone has looked at and assessed the threat situation and can give advice. When Lan Marie Berg was a local politician and got a lot of harassment, she felt that the police did not have enough expertise to help her. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB Berg himself has experienced standing alone against incitement as a local politician. And she found it like night and day to enter the Storting and end up under the mandate of PST. – The system was there and made it possible for me to exercise my political office despite the fact that I have been exposed to a lot of hate speech, incitement and threats. It was an incredible security for me. MDG’s proposal for a safer space for speech In February 2023, Lan Marie Berg (MDG) submitted a proposal to the Storting on amending Section 185 of the Criminal Code, the “racism clause”, and a safer public space for speech. The proposal contains five points: Amend the “racism paragraph” to make it clearer what constitutes hate speech. They also want it to include gender identity and gender expression. Want social media to get their own media responsibility act, which includes, among other things, requirements for a responsible editor More funds for the police’s online patrol More funds for the police’s reporting service for hate speech Expand the mandate of PST, so that they can follow up more public debaters. Berg believes that PST should take care of the most vulnerable social debaters, youth politicians and local politicians, and they must get funds for that. – I think that will create more security and space for the voices that we may have already lost due to the harsh climate of expression. news has previously written that women do not want to be on the list for Høgre in Alstahaug municipality in Nordland because they do not want to expose themselves to harassment and harassment in social media. As of now, there is only one woman on the list. PST understands the concern – We understand very well that there is a lack of measures, says Olav Rognlid. He is a section leader in PST and works to protect people with management power. Rognlid says PST is worried about democracy because of all the harassment and harassment that causes youth and local politicians to give up. He adds that this harassment is often below the threshold for criminal law, which means that those who speak out cannot be followed up. – But it is the amount of incitement and harassment that makes the politicians want to do other things, he says. Olav Rognlid in PST says the increased amount of harassment and threats against youth politicians is a threat to democracy Photo: Morten Solem Even if Rognlid understands the concerns of the AUF leader and partially agrees with them, he believes that it is the police district that best handles harassment against community debaters. – It will not necessarily be better if PST receives the tasks centrally. We have therefore come to the conclusion that the best thing is for us to step in and help the police with their expertise. Therefore, the security service is now in dialogue with the police directorate to increase its expertise in the dissemination of threat images and security-related advice in the police district, according to Rognlid. – We have seen a need for that. Then we can increase competence where it is needed. Will consider the proposal Ingunn Foss, Storting representative for Høgre and member of the justice committee, calls it a serious problem. She understands that many people pull away because it is uncomfortable. – It is a point to find tools that ensure that those who speak out against the legislation we have can be caught and beaten up by the police, says Foss. Photo: Hans Kristian Thorbjørnsen, Right. – Regarding the concrete proposal for the MDGs, it is difficult to draw conclusions before the case has come. Of course, a thorough treatment is needed before you can say what you think about it. Foss thinks it helps that in recent years we have introduced legislation that can crack down on incitement, harassment and hate speech. – The important thing here is that people know that the police can crack down on this with the law in hand, then it is to try to educate people to express themselves in a way that ensures that our democracy does not become harmful because of this.
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AUF believes that PST should be responsible for community debaters who are exposed to incitement – news Nordland
