70% of hate messages on social networks and online media attack women, immigrants, LGTBIQ+ people and politicians, according to the conclusions of the Hatemedia project managed by the International University of La Rioja (Unir) and financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation.
The project analyzes “almost ten million messages” published on X, Facebook and web pages of which “63% promote a climate of media hostility against vulnerable groups,” states the institution. This climate seeks, he continues, “to provoke feelings of anger, resentment and opposition towards a certain person or group.” They are part of a strategy “aimed at positioning certain narratives and ideas in public opinion,” the university analysts conclude.
The Hatemedia project has developed a tool that they have called hate monitor “capable of detecting the presence, type and intensity of hate messages on social networks and comment sections of the websites of several of the main Spanish news media.”
The analysis of hate messages reveals, according to this work, that 35% of them agitate political hatred centered on media websites. Another 35% corresponds to xenophobic, misogynistic or sexual orientation hatred. The remaining third is more of a “general type of hatred, without focusing on any specific group,” he concludes. The review explains that this last, more general variety is the one that most frequently abounds on social networks.
Regarding the intensity of this hatred, analysts have established four levels: level 1 is associated with hate messages that they call “uncivil”, level 2 refers to “malicious messages or abusive expressions”, type 3 focuses on insults and level 4 already includes threats, both veiled and explicit.
In this sense, approximately 63% of the messages fall into intensity levels 1 and 2 while the most severe degrees (3 and 4) account for 37%. In any case, this hatred is fundamentally directed at the most vulnerable groups.
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