Viral sticks, virtual stones: addressing anonymous hate speech online

Abstract

ABSTRACT Woods and Ruscher examine hate speech as a multifaceted phenomenon that has adapted to novel communication contexts and opportunities. In particular, online communication represents a growing opportunity for individuals to engage in anonymous hate speech, a situation that merits additional research for several reasons. The authors posit, first, that this specific type of hate speech warrants focused research because it may not altogether fit into pre-established categories of hate speech events, a matter that may have implications for the likelihood of legal censure. Second, this incarnation of hate speech may be best understood in terms of constitutive harms, relative to other harms, that are themselves understudied. Finally, anonymous hate speech online may inflict unique and additional harms by virtue of the unique context of the Internet and the ease of anonymity for perpetrators. Woods and Ruscher provide an overview of research on the types and harms of hate speech, and a consideration of the impact both of anonymity and of the Internet on these harms, as well as describe an illustrative example of a type of hate speech online that is often anonymous—derogatory Internet memes—in an effort to encourage further research into this novel incarnation of words that wound.