Hate Speech in social media: perceptions and attitudes of higher education students in Portugal

Abstract

Hate speech in social media has been an increasing concern, particularly during the last decade. Today, the rates of technology adoption are very high, particularly among the younger groups. Students are permanently connected through mobile technologies and the explosion of social media led to major changes in the flows of communication. Social platforms became the chosen vehicle for personal communication, for getting the news and for entertainment. At the same time, social media reflects the growing ideological polarization that is particularly visible on politics, religion, environmental and gender and sexuality issues. Hate speech is not a new phenomenon but it has specific characteristics in the online world that pose new challenges. International organizations have been promoting initiatives to support countries in tackling this issue. Social media platforms are also defining rules against diverse forms of intolerance particularly directed at vulnerable groups. Currently, there is a growing body of feminist research that has mainly focused on identifying how social media platforms can be toxic environments for women, namely by facilitating image-based sexual abuses and the sexual objectification of women and girls. Higher education students are a critical group regarding this problem. Not only they are permanently connected, but they are also frequently less prepared to deal with disinformation and discriminatory digital interactions than they think. In this qualitative study, we want to know how higher education students in Portugal deal with online hate speech, particularly gender-focused hate speech. We present results from four focus groups that were conducted with both Portuguese and Brazilian students (n = 28). Findings promote a deeper understanding of the proliferation of hate speech on social media, particularly towards female foreign students and point at the importance of promoting curricular and extra-curricular literacy programs, as well as mechanisms of monitoring on social platforms.