Today, Olga Jubany will present the paper “The hate speech threat to human dignity and human rights” at the ICHR: International Conference on Human Rights in Osaka.
Abstract: Whereas the new online era provides many new possibilities for interaction and expression it has also become increasingly infested by the growing phenomenon of online hate speech. Part of this refers to a explicit harm, threatening the integrity of people, yet another form of this violence is manifested in a subtle way, cementing discrimination and subalternity, through devaluation, disparagement and othering, having a poisoning impact as it evokes the worst principles of our society. Grounded on an original ethnographic research this paper argues how hate speech is a serious threat to human dignity and human rights that has a devastating impact on the construction of the subjectivity of those who suffer it every day, and harms those groups in most vulnerable positions. Moreover it shows how in order to reach the critical response needed, young people as forerunners on social media must be made more aware of the harms of hate speech to become motivated to act.
