FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND HATE SPEECH IN THE ONLINE COMMUNICATION

Freedom of expression is one of the basic human rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights since 1950. Also, freedom of expression continues to be the main pillar on which a democratic state such as the Republic of North Macedonia is built, where freedom of expression is guaranteed by the 1991 Constitution. With the creation of social networks and the development of online communications, the freedom of expression has exceeded its limits, occasionally turning into hate speech, which is considered one of the most resilient manifestations of cyber violence. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the social aspect of the transition of freedom of expression to hate speech. In this paper, scientific, theoretical and empirical methods will be used in order to reach the collection and scientific, analysis of data. Initially, through the method of content analysis, we will investigate the definition of hate speech and the problems related to its regulation, to continue with a summary of the relevant literature and the researches that have been done so far on this issue. In the final part of this paper, the results of the survey questionnaire will be analysed and interpreted, through which the statistical data will be collected, where the respondents will completely anonymously share their opinions on the added problem.