Hate Speech and the Spiral of Silence

Next up in this lively ECREA 2022 session on the Spiral of Silence is Oana Stefanita, whose focus is on the expression of hate speech against the Roma community in online spaces in Romania. Hate speech is now widespread and a major problem in online and social media, and takes a number of forms; while platforms are taking some efforts to remove such content, this also conflicts with ideas of ‘free speech’, and can be amplified by platform algorithms. And hate speech can have some very severe psychological and physical effects, of course. Victims of hate speech often tend to normalise such abuse, and this then also leads to its underreporting.

Exposure to hate speech is correlated with time spent online, and engagement in discussions that aim to counter hate speech can have a positive effect; the present study, then, explored the patterns of engagement with hate speech directed towards Roma people in Romania. This was operationalised in an experimental setting with an online panel of respondents; they were exposed to content resembling Facebook posts that presented various perspectives on common stereotypes associated with Roma people.

Online engagement is negatively influenced by exposure to various types of hate speech, and leads to a silencing effect on people’s online engagement with that content. Exposure to hate speech followed by negative comments, or neutral speech followed by negative comments, also led to less engagement. This is for all forms of Facebook engagement: likes, shares, and comments. People thus adopt a self-censorship attitude when they see such content, and their own views about the Roma community did not even play a role here: even those with pre-existing negative views would not engage with such hate speech.

But this lack of engagement is also likely to encourage the further spread of such hate speech: hateful people are likely to continue to spread their hate unless they are confronted for doing so. Positive comments, countering hate, might have an effect, however: they send a signal that not everybody agrees with the hateful content, and that those who seek to set the record straight might find safety in numbers.