Paper Title
The Hate Speech Threat to Human Dignity and Human Rights
Abstract
Whereas the new online era provides many new possibilities for interaction and expression it has also become
increasingly infested by the growing problematic of online hate speech. Part of this is explicit harm, threatening the integrity
of people, yet another form of online hate speech is manifested in a more subtle way, cementing discrimination and
subalternity, through devaluation, disparagement and ‘othering’, having a poisoning impact as it evokes the worst 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 the 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 aware of the harms of hate speech and become
motivated to act.
Keywords - Hate speech; Human Dignity; Human Rights; Symbolic violence; Illocution, Ethnography