Today, hate speech is present in all segments of society, but it is especially widespread on social networks and in the media, where the content is available to everyone and spreads literally with one click. People have adapted to it so much that they neither notice it nor realize its danger, which is exactly why it must be prevented. Today, hate speech represents such a problem that it is necessary to include all available mechanisms with the aim of preventing it, considering the consequences it can cause.
Spreading hate speech limits freedom of expression
Each of us is different, but that does not mean that because of these differences, someone is worth more and someone less. When someone spreads hate speech to that person or victim, it limits freedom of expression, freedom of movement, and even human dignity itself. It is absolutely inconceivable that because someone is different or a member of a certain group, he should be insulted to the limit.
Hate speech is public expression that spreads, incites, promotes or justifies hatred, discrimination or hostility towards a particular group or individual. On social networks, it includes derogatory comments, images, video materials or groups in which hate and violence are called. Anyone can be a target of hate speech. Such speeches may be directed against individuals or specific groups. It is about insulting, slandering, threatening or inciting people. This is why hate speech is an important topic of political and social education today, given that we can never know how it will affect the victim and what consequences the victim may have.
Hate speech, therefore, is not only the hateful content of the message, but also targets a vulnerable social group. Its goal is not only to insult or humiliate a certain social group and its members because of their biological, historical or socially conditioned group identity, but also to silence, intimidate, segregate, ghettoize them from other members of the wider social community, denying them the right to equality and equality. In short, the goal is to create a social environment suitable for various forms and practices of their discrimination, and even violence.
A message containing hate speech has a double purpose. The first is to humiliate, isolate, silence and discriminate members of a certain group, and the second would be to homogenize members of hate groups so that they can have their own followers. This means that hate speech can have great and unfathomable consequences for an individual or society. In a society where it is customary to say words that incite, spread or justify hatred, especially towards minority groups and their members, it represents a society where violence becomes normal. In such a society, not only the rights of minorities are threatened, but also the rights of all citizens of that society.
Emotional, psychological, social and physical consequences
The consequences are somehow grouped and they can be emotional, which actually cause the victim fear, sadness, helplessness and a feeling of not belonging and disappointment. Hate speech can also leave permanent psychological consequences on the mental health of individuals directly exposed to hate speech or eyewitnesses, and it can especially affect children.
Of course, the social consequences also leave a mark, because the victim has a need for isolation, or for grouping with people who belong to a certain group that is already the target of hate speech. It also causes the victim to feel a violation of his identity and personality, an identity crisis, the need to be someone else in order to better fit into society.
It also happens that many victims of hate speech are not even aware of it, and the reason is insufficient information and ignorance. Because of this, very often the case is ignored and not reported, but kept to themselves, which can ultimately leave emotional and psychological problems. Of course, these emotions reflect on self-confidence and often cause anxiety, panic disorder, depression or psychosomatic ailments and diseases. In a social sense, people often reduce their circle of people, move in small known groups, in their safe places, and sometimes change their place of residence.
Unlike other forms of discrimination that are indirect, hate speech represents direct discrimination with the direct aim of causing psychological pain. Hate speech can have physical consequences, as it is known that hate speech can incite physical violence. A victim of hate speech can either hurt themselves because they believe what was said, or they can take out their anger on someone else because of it. Speech can certainly have a strong influence on social relations, on professional cooperation, on relations in society and even between countries.
Young people today are connected and networked like no other generation before, and some Internet users are encouraged by the apparent anonymity, that is, by not being in direct live contact with their interlocutor. All this leads to a situation where hate speech spreads at an uncontrolled speed. In recent years, there have been groups on social networks (especially on Facebook, such as "Everyone who hates..") that call for hatred towards a certain group or groups. Fortunately, such groups met with condemnation and were removed relatively quickly. However, today young people are often the target of hate speech in their viber or facebook chat groups, which are not public.
It is important to understand that every spoken word carries its own weight, and therefore the consequences and responsibility for what is said. People who use hate speech, even when it comes to the younger population, use these words and sentences quite consciously. That's why you should always react, educate children and young people, condemn this kind of behavior, and if necessary, ask for professional help.
It is necessary to use mechanisms and institutions to act against hate speech
Anyone who is a victim of hate speech, whether it is adults or children, should react and use mechanisms and institutions to act. If it is about children, it is important that the parents or guardians react, in order to show the children that it is not okay to neither spread hate speech nor tolerate it, and that they should be protected, and those who use hate speech should be punished. Adults often suffer because of their pride, do not speak and do not report hate speech, but they face the fear every day of whether someone will attack them again.
The importance of recognizing the problem of hate speech, i.e. the damage that every xenophobic, racist, homophobic and misogynistic discourse within the public sphere causes to society as a whole, especially the damage it causes to the social groups to which such speech of intolerance is directed, often minority, socially marginalized and less protected groups, must be clear to every person participating in public discourse.
It is very important to distinguish between permissible and impermissible forms of expression, and the right to freedom of expression excludes the type of expression that incites hatred and may violate or deny the rights of others, and that is exactly what hate speech is. Suppression of hate speech is also necessary in order to protect the right to freedom of expression, because it is precisely hate speech that represents its abuse and negates its essence. That is why everyone has an obligation to fight against hate speech and should be aware of its consequences.
Bonus video:
