Hate Speech in Social Media and Its Effects on the LGBT Community: A Review of the Current Research

Abstract

Hate speech on social media is a real problem with real consequences. Despite the constant efforts of social media platforms to moderate, flag, and ban hate posts, there is still a vast amount of hateful content flooding them. Hate speech, in general, and offensive material online, in particular, are not easy to define and may include a wide spectre of expression. To thoroughly account for the nature and intensity of the effects of hate speech in social media requires to distinguish between various shades of hate speech targeting different groups and their subsequent effects. This paper seeks to review the literature on the psychological effects of online hate speech on the LGBT community and to highlight the strong negative impact of this phenomenon. The paper aims to contribute to the field by examining the propagation and the effects of derogatory language and hate speech based on sexual orientation.

Associations Between Classroom Climate, Empathy, Self-Efficacy, and Countering Hate Speech Among Adolescents: A Multilevel Mediation Analysis

“…More specifically, a multilevel mediation analysis was conducted to investigate the direct and indirect associations among classroom climate, empathy for victims of hate speech, self-efficacy toward intervening in hate speech, and counterspeech. An important consideration when investigating these associations is that a lack in adolescents’ capacity to deal productively with hate speech is negatively related to their well-being (Gámez-Guadix et al, 2020; Krause et al, 2021; Wachs, Gámez-Guadix et al, 2022), whereas counterspeech can reduce negative outcomes for victims of hate speech and reduce people’s engagement in hate speech as perpetrators (Garland et al, 2022; He et al, 2021; Obermaier et al, 2021; Ştefăniță & Buf, 2021).…”

“…Understanding the correlates of adolescents’ potential or actual engagement in counterspeech is important. Feeling helpless in dealing with hate speech or becoming the target of hate speech (online or offline) can have a negative impact on adolescents’ well-being (Gámez-Guadix et al, 2020; Krause et al, 2021; Wachs, Gámez-Guadix et al, 2022), whereas the countering of hate speech not only reduces negative consequences for members of the target group but also discourages others’ engagement in hate speech (Garland et al, 2022; He et al, 2021; Obermaier et al, 2021; Ștefăniță & Buf, 2021). Despite the relevance of understanding adolescents’ engagement in counterspeech, the correlates of counterspeech among adolescents are largely unknown.…”

‘No‐one knows how to care for LGBT community like LGBT do’1: LGBTQIA+ experiences of COVID‐19 in the United Kingdom and Brazil

“…Digital and social media are important to LGBTQIA+ people in everyday life as safe(r) spaces to discover more about their gender and sexuality, seek potential partners, form friendships, and participate in queer activism, sometimes anonymously and often more openly than in offline environments (Pickles, 2020). By contrast, these same environments provide opportunities for hate speech and discrimination of LGBTQIA+ people, to which transgender people are disproportionately prone (Pickles, 2020; Ştefăniţă and Buf, 2021). Exposure can cause mood swings, anger, loneliness, and fear in the short term, and erosion of social trust and negative personal development in the longer term (Ştefăniţă and Buf, 2021).…”

“…By contrast, these same environments provide opportunities for hate speech and discrimination of LGBTQIA+ people, to which transgender people are disproportionately prone (Pickles, 2020; Ştefăniţă and Buf, 2021). Exposure can cause mood swings, anger, loneliness, and fear in the short term, and erosion of social trust and negative personal development in the longer term (Ştefăniţă and Buf, 2021). That increased transphobia and discrimination online has been perceived at a time when people are both more isolated and anxious, and likely spending more time online due to COVID restrictions, is especially troubling.…”

Hate Speech Patterns in Social Media: A Methodological Framework and Fat Stigma Investigation Incorporating Sentiment Analysis, Topic Modelling and Discourse Analysis

“…It is indeed challenging to mitigate the impact of hateful commenting without having a proper understanding of the types and targets of hate speech, as comments contain overlapping targets (Salminen et al, 2018). Hateful comments may target various communities based on their sexual orientation, ethnic origin, religious faith, gender identity or body weight or any combination of these (Albadi, Kurdi, & Mishra, 2018;Matamoros-Fernández & Farkas, 2021;Ștefăniță & Buf, 2021;Wanniarachchi et al, 2019). The offensive content posted online is therefore very subjective with no clear definition of the target (i.e., the person or community being addressed in the hate speech); hence, human interpretations of societal events must complement the data-centric computational approaches for analysing its hateful (Kocoń et al, 2021).…”