Public order offences: How feasible is their applicability to online hate?

Iñigo Gordon Benito

doi:10.35295/osls.iisl.1905

Autores/as

Iñigo Gordon Benito UNESCO Chair for Human Rights and Public Authorities, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1000-960X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl.1905

Palabras clave:

orden público, delitos de odio, discurso de odio, disturbios, ciberespacio

Resumen

La utilidad práctica de los delitos de orden público (public order offences), que representan todo un sector legal en Reino Unido, resulta muy escasa en redes sociales. Este conjunto de delitos (arts. 4, 4A y 5 de la Public Order Act 1986) pretendía ocuparse de cualquier comportamiento o actividad expresiva, sea de forma oral o escrita, llevada a cabo en un contexto de proximidad física con la víctima. En principio, la razón de ser de los delitos de orden público podría desdibujarse si extendiéramos su aplicabilidad a los mensajes de odio online y, por tanto, a cualquier forma impersonal de actuar. En consecuencia, solo el 13% y el 14% de los delitos de odio cometidos online en 2016/17 y 2017/18 en Inglaterra y Gales implicaron delitos de orden público. Por tanto, se observa cierta resistencia basada en la adecuación de estos delitos al entorno online sin exigir que el mensaje sea audible o visible para alguien, poniendo en cuestión las notas de inmediatez/proximidad. Trataremos de explicar cómo este rayo de esperanza ha perdurado en el tiempo en medio de una feroz oposición a ampliar el ámbito de aplicación de los delitos de orden público más allá de los foros públicos tradicionales, como sería el caso de los disturbios desencadenados en la plaza mayor de una ciudad.

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Biografía del autor/a

Iñigo Gordon Benito, UNESCO Chair for Human Rights and Public Authorities, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)

El Prof. Dr. Iñigo GORDON BENITO, miembro de la Cátedra UNESCO de Derechos Humanos y Poderes Públicos de la UPV/EHU (http://katedraddhh.eus/es/equipo/equipo.php), desempeña su labor docente en el campo del Derecho penal. Su actividad investigadora se centra en los delitos de odio, el discurso de odio y la suplantación de identidad online. En noviembre de 2021 ha defendido su tesis doctoral titulada «Delitos de odio y ciberodio en el Código penal de 1995. Especial atención a la relación entre el subtipo agravado del art. 510.3 y la agravante genérica del art. 22.4». Actualmente colabora y forma parte del equipo de trabajo del Grupo de Investigación en materia de delitos de odio, financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación del Gobierno de España y que se extiende desde el 1 de septiembre de 2021 al 1 de septiembre de 2025 (Título del Proyecto: Delitos de odio en España: retos pendientes; Ref. Administrativa: I+D+I PID2020-115320GB-100). En 2018 ha realizado una estancia de investigación en Oxford Brookes University (Reino Unido). En abril de 2021 ha realizado una nueva estancia de investigación en el Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung von Kriminalität, Sicherheit und Recht (Alemania). Es investigador postdoctoral contratado desde junio de 2022. Ha obtenido la acreditación de Profesor Agregado en mayo de 2023. En junio de 2023 ha publicado su monografía “Delitos de odio y ciberodio. Una revisión acerca de las posibilidades de filtrado penal del discurso a través de los arts. 22.4 y 510 CP” con la editorial Tirant lo Blanch.

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