Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Arpine Hovhannisyan decided to not leave the insulting comments people write on the internet unnoticed and to begin a legal suit against them. The phenomenon in and of itself is a terrible one; people, presumably, put themselves first, and in order to make them feel important and to feel as though they are a part of the people, they write insulting comments on Facebook and YouTube. The sad thing is that it goes unpunished, and, even worse, is defended by law enforcement and organizations that defend freedom of speech: “What can we do, it’s the voice of the people.” Just as in many cases, our NGOs are not led by laws and their supposed fundamentals, but instead by political comfort, which unavoidably causes double standards.
Technically, though, the problem isn’t very clear for me at least. Aravot.am publishes 100-200 articles every day, and about 5-10 of them have to do with the Republican Party or its members. About 50-300 comments are left under those 5-10 articles, 90 percent of which are insults (Dashnaks may or may not also be targeted; it depends on whether or not they “behave themselves,” if the prime minister once again demands that they are against the revolution and that their place is in the trash, then a few dozen more insults will be found in the comments). Deleting those hundreds of comments on a Facebook page is massive work. But, let’s say that it’s successful. Deleting comments isn’t a one-time process. “Representatives of the people” can continue to write insults under articles days or even week after they’re published. Therefore, those articles need to continuously be checked. Also, let’s say that the same Arpine Hovhannisyan (whom, by the way, despite the many faults of her political team, I personally respect) calls a media outlet at 10 PM and asks that all insults aimed towards her be deleted. We do it, but until the next morning, about 20 more “fighters” write their insulting “valuable” thoughts. Is there any basis for suing us for the next morning?
That’s why, I think, there needs to be unwritten parts of written laws. Society needs to get itself together one way or another. First, the prime minister needs to publicly and strictly condemn “hate speech,” since such speech is not only immoral, but also illegal.
Secondly, all of us- writers, speakers, NGOs- need to separate the faults of individuals from the faults of their political parties. Crimes are intolerable, but a person’s individual dignity always should be respected.
Aram Abrahamyan
