Openness of Statistics as a Condition for the Development of a Tolerant Society

Abstract

In the XXI century issues concerning the creation of a tolerant society and bringing up the younger generation in the spirit of  tolerance are becoming more pronounced by the mass media and  are more often raised in scientific publications. Openness of statistics is viewed by the authors as a condition for the creation of a tolerant  society assuming that the concept of open data that is strongly  pushed forward nowadays potentially brings not only new  possibilities for improving the public consciousness and social order,  but also entails new threats associated with the unrestricted  availability of any statistical data. The article considers various points of view on tolerance and tolerant society along with challenges on  the path to transforming statistical information into the open  platform of some kind to be freely accessible and available for all  social strata without exception.  The authors pay special attention to  outlining best practices on open data that along with the messages  of support to real information democracy still leave certain loopholes  due to the existence of national interests. In this regard, the article addresses a widespread and highly toxic double standards when  while encouraging the opponents to be absolutely «open and transparent» in different fields, one’s first priority is still ensuring own information security.