Hate speech - hate on the internet

In the context of the global refugee crisis and the associated debate about immigration to Germany, racist hate speech online has become much more intense. The internet acts like a megaphone here: the actual number of haters may be relatively small, but their permanent visibility gives the impression of a broader movement. This in turn can give a boost to racist acts and right-wing extremist groups in analog life.

This is also possible indirectly - for example by spreading uninformed or false statements that use racist stereotypes, such as those of "social parasitism". Racist statements are often disguised as humor or irony.

Another recurring motive of racist hate speech is to instrumentalize debates about sexualized violence against women. The demand to protect "our women" from "them" is an example of the "us/them" rhetoric typical of hate speech. Incomplete information, disinformation or rumors about crimes and one-sidedly received or subjectively filtered reporting in one's own filter bubble condense into a conspiracy theory world view. Media that report differently and in a differentiated way are degraded to the "lying press".

In addition to these more indirect forms, hate speech is also expressed directly in the form of calls for specific acts of violence against refugees or people with a history of migration. In both forms - direct and indirect - hate speech contributes to a social climate that gives racist and far-right individuals and groups the feeling that they are acting in the interests and as the mouthpiece of a silent majority. The latest figures from the Federal Criminal Police Office are an indicator of this mood.

Closely related to racism in general is hate speech that attacks and devalues people on the basis of their religion. Anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim voices are particularly noticeable here. The phenomena differ from one another in history and content and should not be equated here. What they have in common, however, is that they use religion or culture as a pretext to devalue people - regardless of actual religiosity and religious practice. The limits of legitimate criticism of religion are far exceeded in both cases.

Anti-Semitism remains widespread in German society. Anti-Muslim attitudes have increased sharply in recent years - and demonstrably not only on the right-wing fringe or in right-wing extremist scenes, but in all social strata. This sentiment is picked up and amplified on the Internet. Entire blogs are dedicated to inciting hatred against people of the Muslim faith or defaming associations and mosque communities as well as politicians who do not act in a religious capacity, such as Cem Özdemir or Aydan Özoguz.

The social networks and comment columns of online media are full of age-old stereotypes of a threatening Islamization. They draw heavily on particularly striking imagery - also typical of the hate speech phenomenon. Young people can also be directly affected by this type of hate speech. If it goes unchallenged, it often creates a feeling among young people that they are excluded, rejected and not respected because of their religious affiliation or family background.

Sexism refers to the discrimination and devaluation of women and girls based on their gender. Women in Germany experience this in the form of sexual harassment in public, at work and school or in their social environment - many as early as adolescence.

The internet is no exception. Young female users in particular often experience sexist attacks there. These include degrading slogans and sexually explicit insults, the threat or advocacy of sexualized violence and even the publication of real or digitally manipulated nude photos. The latter is further intensified by the spread of AI and deepnude generators, as the case of Grok shows. The chatbot generated thousands of fake nude images within a very short space of time.

Women who express themselves politically as politicians, bloggers, activists or journalists are often affected. They experience a different kind of criticism than their male colleagues, are more often judged on the basis of their appearance or have their sexual integrity attacked. However, girls and young women who use the internet on a daily basis and rightly see it as their digital living space can also become the target of sexist hate speech as soon as they express themselves publicly there.

Discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation also affects transsexual, intersexual and homosexual people or transgender people. Young people are particularly at risk of becoming victims of hostility, devaluation and collective violence during the identity discovery phase. The transition to cyberbullying is fluid.

Young people are just as unsettled by indirect hate speech directed against these groups in general. It can rob them of the self-esteem they need, especially at this stage, to deal with their bodies and sexuality in a self-determined way. Central elements of homophobic hate speech include conspiracy theories of state-enforced re-education, organized "advertising" for homosexuality and a powerful "homo lobby". Equating what cannot be equated - homosexuality is associated with paedosexual crime, incest or bestiality - is also a central motif of homophobic hate speech.