IM Cultural Institute

Tag: Legal Regulation

  • Improving Public Literacy in Hate Speech Cases on Social Media as an Effort to Mitigate Legal and Social Impacts

    Improving Public Literacy in Hate Speech Cases on Social Media as an Effort to Mitigate Legal and Social Impacts

    Following on the evidence that hate speech and the threats posed by it and its recurrence has not received enough attention, the authors have conducted a study of hate speech in social media, focusing in particular on insults that may constitute criminal speech and on the mindset of those who produce such content.

    Using a qualitative approach, the study analyzes a defamation case based on the final decision published on the Supreme Court website. Pragmatic analysis is applied to interpret the intentions underlying the offender’s speech.

    The findings identify several forms of insults, including accusations, curses, ridicule, and combinations of accusations and curses. These forms involve violations of pragmatic maxims, namely the maxims of quality, wisdom, and agreement.

    From a legal perspective, such speech can be prosecuted if it is done intentionally, contains accusations, is disseminated to the public, contains swear words, and defames the victim.

    Concluding results point to the need for greater awareness among social media users of the risks and consequences of insulting speech, emphasizing the importance of literacy around insult and defamation cases.

    Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1504.10

    Reference

    Arianto, A. K., Santosa, R., & Yustanto, H. (2025). Improving Public Literacy in Hate Speech Cases on Social Media as an Effort to Mitigate Legal and Social Impacts. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 15(4), 1120–1129

  • Understanding and Appraising ‘Hate Speech’

    Understanding and Appraising ‘Hate Speech’

    According to the author of this study, although hate speech has become a matter of international concern, permeating institutional and lay discussions alike, what it means to refer to a linguistic act as ‘hate speech’ remains unclear.

    In light of such evidence, focusing on lay understandings of hate speech, the study explores the relationship between hate speech and hate, the distinction between hate speech and offensive speech, considering also how hate speech is defined in the UK Public Order Act 1986.

    Using a corpus-based discourse analysis, 255 hate speech–related news articles were analyzed, alongside data from the General English Web 2020 corpus.

    Hate speech is found to be a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, because hate is a central component, but it is not sufficient on its own to classify an act as hate speech, and elements such as threats, denigration of the targets based on a protected characteristic (age, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability), the potential to cause harm and the intent to stir up hatred, are also essential in distinguishing hate speech and offense.

    Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00082.vil

    Reference

    Vilar-Lluch, S. (2023). Understanding and appraising ‘hate speech.’ Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 11(2), 279–306

  • Hate Speech in the Internet Context: Unpacking the Roles of Internet Penetration, Online Legal Regulation, and Online Opinion Polarization from a Transnational Perspective

    Hate Speech in the Internet Context: Unpacking the Roles of Internet Penetration, Online Legal Regulation, and Online Opinion Polarization from a Transnational Perspective

    In this study, the dynamics of online hate speech are examined through the analysis of a panel dataset covering 167 countries over 19 years, drawn from the V-Dem project.

    The relationships between key Internet context indicators and online hate speech is explored, in order to better understand how the phenomenon can be addressed at a global scale.

    Findings show that what the authors call “Internet penetration” is positively associated with online hate speech, supporting the idea that the technological affordances of the Internet can facilitate the expression of hateful content. Online legal regulation is negatively related to online hate speech, not significantly moderating the relationship between Internet penetration and hate speech, highlighting tensions in the effectiveness of legal approaches. On another hand, online opinion polarization is positively associated with online hate speech and significantly strengthens the relationship between Internet penetration and hate speech, suggesting that polarized opinion environments intensify hate speech and intergroup conflict.

    The study concludes by offering a discussion of the theoretical contributions of these findings and their implications for policy aimed at reducing online hate speech worldwide.

    Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.1177/02666669221148487

    Reference

    Liu, Z., Luo, C., & Lu, J. (2024). Hate speech in the Internet context: Unpacking the roles of Internet penetration, online legal regulation, and online opinion polarization from a transnational perspective. Information Development, 40(4), 533–549