It’s no surprise to me that online hate speech has been at a steady increase worldwide. Incidents have been reported on nearly every continent as more and more people move online. As online presence continues to increase globally people are far more likely to aim towards racism, misogyny, and homophobia. Societies confronting the issue must deal with questions of free speech and censorship on widley used tech and social media platforms.
Many social scientist have been looking into different social media post that can potentially inspire acts of violence. In Germany, “a correlation was found between anti-refugee Facebook post for Germany party and attacks on refugees”(Laub 2019). Sri Lanka has also had post online spreading rumors targeting Tamil Muslim minority. There has been many debates on how countries plan to regulate hate speech online. For example, the U.S. social media platforms have broad latitude, each establishing its own standards for content and methods of enforcement.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/hate-speech-social-media-global-comparisons
LIS 4022 Spring 2020 