In a society where privacy became a rare and valuable thing, the speech which incites to hate, discrimination and violence became more and more spread. With the growth of social media networks, hate speech transitioned from being used in the offline, to following the victims everywhere. If before having the technology to allow us fast access to information, the victims of hate speech could easily walk away, nowadays they area followed by it everywhere.

Even though it existed for a long time, the speech which incites to hate became more and more used in the 21st century due to the large coverage. This does not mean that hate speech in offline disappeared. A huge part of it was transitioned online as it became very easy for bullies to produce a more impactful message and to hide from their victims. It is easier to create a false identity and comment at other people’s actions rather than face them. This derogatory language usually targets victims based on gender, race, national origin, sex or religion.

The hate speech is posing threats to human rights. According to an article from the Council of Europe, this type of language poses great threats to democracy, sometimes escalating from a hate crime to a fully-fledged conflict. In the human kind’s history so far there are a lot of conflicts that appeared due to hate speech and also many organizations and movements who still promote this kind of language. Any type of difference between two people could be the subject of hate speech, from the way each dresses to the way each of them thinks about a certain topic.

What can we do about it?

Even though there has been an increase in cases of hate speech, we should not be afraid to report them. Under-reporting these type of cases contributed to the increase. Another thing that we can do to prevent this from happening is to teach the new generations that there are limits to free speech and that just because they have this right they should not use it to hurt others. Education is the key to change. Another way to deal with the issue is to confront the bullies. It may not always be the easiest path, but it’s a good approach to minimizing the impact. Even if you are not a direct victim, you can always help victims to face their bully. There are also groups such as eMore which encourage people to come forward and report hate speech abuses.