People’s open access to online forums, comment fields and debates in social media is generally considered to greatly benefit the democratic dialogue in society. However, the tone can be tough, polarising and insulting, which puts strong pressure on the democratic debate and freedom of expression and affects women’s and men’s access to the public debate in the Nordic region.

This project has establish a new Nordic network focusing on sexism and online hate speech. The network consists of a number of Nordic actors involved in the work for equal treatment in society, including the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the Norwegian Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud and the Icelandic Human Rights Center.

The project has arranged three expert seminars and put together an anthology with a series of recommendations on how the Nordic equality bodies and ombudsman institutions can work to combat sexism and online hate speech.