10 No. 59 JUSTICE was noted in my previous article in Justice. The earlier document, however, had little public impact and its provisions were not binding on the social networks, although it had for the first time brought them together to discuss the mounting concerns of Jewish groups and others who joined in later meetings, including legal, academic, Muslim and womens’ groups.18 The EC Code of Conduct, however, has a built-in monitoring mechanism, whereby expert civil society organizations, including my own, Community Security Trust, at a meeting in February 2017, were tasked with recording the speed and effectiveness with which Facebook, Google and Twitter remove material containing criminal content.19 The processes are transparent and the conclusions are publicized. They include that, overall, only 28.2% of notifications by selected civil society groups of criminal content were removed by the three main social networks: 28.3% of cases by Facebook, 19.9 % by Twitter and 48.5% by Youtube, and that 40% of criminal content was removed in less than 24 hours after notification (as agreed), but that 43% took up to 48 hours to remove.20 A second monitoring round started as this article is being written, and therefore, it is too early to say if the social networks’ performance has improved at this stage in the monitoring process. In June 2016, efforts to combat antisemitism picked up further momentum when the European Union High Level Group on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Intolerance was launched in Brussels. This new initiative was designed to exchange and disseminate best practices between national authorities. It was followed six months later by a second meeting that reviewed progress, and in turn identified the need to improve hate crime standards and practices for law enforcement agencies, to better implement existing legislation and provide better protection for victims of hate crime.21 The High Level Group has spawned other initiatives. One is an expert sub-group focused on methodologies for recording and collecting data on hate crime, organized by FRA in cooperation with the EC.22 Another initiative is the thematic discussion on hate crime training, which led to the publication in February 2017 of ten guiding principles that member states are encouraged to implement after recognition that more than half of EU member states provide some form of hate crime training for law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies, and that best practices could be identified.23 At the same time, it published a review of existing resources available to support such training.24 The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL), formerly the European Police Agency, has been given new strategic direction after its 2014 transfer to Budapest from Bramshill. The former UK Police Staff College was tasked with creating new training programs on hate crime. They include an online module and a "train the trainers" Hate Crime Certified Training 18. Best Practices for Responding to Cyberhate, AntiDefamation League, available at http://www.adl.org/ combat ing-hate/cyber-safety/best-pract ices/#. WKr9wekae74 (last visited April 20, 2017). 19. First meeting of countering hate speech online subgroup, FRA, Oct. 12, 2016, available at http://fra.europa.eu/en/news/2016 first-meeting-countering-hate-speech-online-subgroup (last visited April 20, 2017). 20. European Commission Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online: First results on implementation, Dec. 2016, available at http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct =j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwiLgc6 m2 4 j TAhWKL 8 AKHXHYDLMQF g g aMAA&u l=http%3A%2F%2Fec.europa eu%2Fnewsroom%2Fdocument. cfm%3Fdoc_id%3D40573&usg=AFQjCNEL6trtMzPJWNO h316C243-bLooTg&sig2=QoqquKfmhENMUR0Dh3V2tA& bvm=bv.151325232,d.bGg (last visited April 20, 2017). 21. A EU High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, European Commission, Feb. 27, 2017, available at http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/ item-detail.cfm?item_id=51025. (last visited April 20, 2017). European Commission, Minutes of the second meeting of the EU High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, Dec. 7, 2016, available at http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/index. cfm?do=groupDetail.groupDetailDoc&id=29734&no=1 (last visited April 20, 2017). 22. Subgroup on methodologies for recording and collecting data on hate crime, FRA, Oct. 2016, available at http:// fra.europa.eu/en/project/2017/subgroup-methodologiesrecording-and-collecting-data-hate-crime (last visited April 20, 2017). 23. European Commission, Hate Crime Training for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Authorities: 10 Key Guiding Principles, Feb. 2017, available at http://www. google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web& cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwjqyY-Myf7SAhVBKMAKHZe8ChE QFgghMAA&ur l=ht tp%3A%2F%2Fec . europa . eu%2Fnewsroom%2Fdocument.cfm%3Fdoc_id%3D4305 0&usg=AFQjCNEHJF1C00RfX7y-vTLa3mvH3zUFiQ&si g2=dJjOzST2kTdzHufr1ziBIA&bvm=bv.151325232,d.d24 (last visited April 20, 2017).
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