Conclusion

Hate speech is a highly contentious issue in South and Southeast Asia, dividing the community of freedom of expression defenders on where the line should be drawn between protecting speech that is harmful to minority groups and enabling important dissent and criticism.  The challenges of dealing with hate speech are particularly salient in online hate speech cases, where the notion of intent can be complicated and remedies harder to implement.  Defamation of religions and blasphemy laws should be removed from criminal statutes. While prohibitions on incitement to particularly tragic past events such as genocides are legitimate, there are questions as to whether prohibitions on merely denying genocides, or specific prohibitions on denial of the Holocaust, are justified.