What is hate and hate speech?
Hate speech
According to Recommendation R (97) 20 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on hate speech: “Hate speech includes all forms of speech that spread, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred based on intolerance, among others: intolerance expressed in aggressive nationalism and ethnocentrism, discrimination and hostility towards minorities, immigrants and people of immigrant origin.”
Hate speech is characterized by intolerance towards difference, promotion of stereotypes, degrading treatment of others often having racist or xenophobic grounds. Therefore, hate speech can be (and often in practice actually is) the first stage of criminal action (escalation of hatred in the form of violent acts, incitement to commit a crime, etc.). It takes a variety of forms, whether through public incitement to hatred or violence directed against persons based on a characteristic they possess (such as gender, race, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, etc.), public dissemination of information, texts, offensive or humiliating images/materials about a person, etc.
Hate speech should not be confused with falsely understood freedom of speech and the right to express one’s own opinions. It is worth remembering that hate speech is a concept that incites hatred, promotes negative emotions towards a person/group of people, is based on stereotypes, discriminatory and humiliating treatment of others, and is not an objective opinion.
Hate
With the development of social media and cyberspace, it is noticeable that we are increasingly dealing with people using hate speech on the Internet. Heyt is one form of cyberbullying that involves insulting, ridiculing or humiliating others online. People who use hejt on the Internet taking advantage of their apparent anonymity allow themselves to use hateful rhetoric and contribute to increasing negative attitudes and ingraining stereotypes against certain people/social groups.
