Spreading hate speech on social media

1. Migration and hate speech

1.1. Migration is not a crime. It is a practice as old as human civilization and a human right recognized in many international treaties (Faustini, 2017).

1.2. Immigrants and refugees are the most affected by hate speech (Calderon et al., 2015).

1.3. Twitter, in particular, with over 500 million posts per day, has a strong impact on a large share of the population (Sayce, 2020)

1.4. During the so-called refugee crisis in 2015, almost 7.5 million tweets were collected through hashtags such as #refugee or #refugeecrisis (Siapera et al, 2018)

1.5. widespread negative sentiment towards foreigners increased, as well as the hostility leading to the exclusion of migrants from jobs and welfare benefits (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2015).

2. Hate speech from the point of view of the law

2.1. All western european countries have hate-speech laws. In 2008, the eu adopted a framework decision on “Combating Racism and Xenophobia” that obliged all member states to criminalize certain forms of hate speech (Mchangama, 2011)..

2.2. The communist countries sought to exploit such laws to limit free speech (Mchangama, 2011)..

2.3. In the United States, hate speech is protected by the First Amendment (Kepkoll, 2023).

3. Hate speech not only reinforces prejudice and stereotypes in society, but it also has a negative impact on the mental and emotional health of target groups, particularly target individuals (Citron and Norton, 2011)

4. Bullying and cyber bullying, of course, arise and spread widely in the online world, which is on the rise due to the usage of social media (Festl & Quandt, 2013).

5. Introduction

5.1. Hate speech "has been prevalent in human interactions in many forms over time in the actual world (such as racism and prejudice), and now it has found a carrier in the virtual world defined by social media Internet" (Thomas, 2011).

5.2. Different authors definition

5.2.1. Hate speech, according to Erjavec & Kovai (2012,), is "a type of abuse, insult, intimidation, harassment, encouragement to violence, hatred, or any other forms of violence.

5.2.2. According to Awan (2016), "hate speech" refers to any sort of rhetoric that is meant to dehumanize others, regardless of their color, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristics, like disabilities, both physical and mental This form can be customized or used in a generic way.

5.2.3. Hate speech, is speech or expression that denigrates a person or persons on the basis of (alleged) membership in a social group identified by attributes such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, physical or mental disability, and others (Curtis, 2023)

6. The emergence of hate speech

6.1. As compared to the traditional media internet is considered as more power full medium for disseminating the news and information. It becomes more accessible through the use of technology like mobile phones, computer and laptop. (Khalil, 2010).

6.2. It can be based on different factors like religion, ethnicity, disability and gender (Seglow, 2016).

7. Hate speech among adolescents

7.1. We know that adolescents are not only the witnesses and victims of hate speech but also that they actively engage in hate speech as perpetrators (Wachs et al., 2021)

7.2. Globally, more than 30% of young people report that they have been bullied by their peers (United Nations Children Fund, 2018)

7.3. Additionally, girls report witnessing online hate speech more often than boys (Wachs et al., 2022a), although the effect size is small.

7.4. Empirical findings suggest that targets of hate speech often experience negative psychological consequences—such as greater anxiety, feelings of fear and insecurity, and sleeping disorders (Delgado & Stefancic, 2019)—that can be considered as similar to the effects of traumatizing events (Leets, 2002).

7.5. Moreover, Reichelmann et al. (2021) found that 70.7% of the 18–25-year-old respondents witnessed online hate speech

7.6. In another study, Harriman et al. (2020) found that 57% of 14–20 years-old participants reported that they had observed hate messages on social media or a website