The eradication of hate speech on social media: a systematic review

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a quantitative and qualitative synthesis of the diverse academic proposals and initiatives for preventing and eliminating hate speech on the internet.

Design/methodology/approach

The foundation for this study is a systematic review of papers devoted to the analysis of hate speech. It has been conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol and applied to an initial corpus of 436 academic texts. Having implemented the suitability, screening and inclusion criteria, this corpus was refined to a sample of 74 articles.

Findings

The main subject categories studied in this corpus of academic research are legal issues and social media. In the majority of the articles, the use of hate speech via social media is associated with five typologies: religion, cyber racism, political slurs, misogyny and attacks on the LGTBI community. The absence of ethical reflection is one of the major shortcomings of IT-focused research and analysis devoted to online hate speech.

Practical implications

To date various systematic reviews have been presented, and they focus on detecting or describing hate speech. These have used either the search appraisal synthesis analysis framework or the Cochrane network. The PRISMA protocol was applied for this study, and both Scopus and texts in German were included. To date no major, rigorous systematic review has been undertaken of proposals to combat hate speech.

Originality/value

The link between hate speech and poverty has not been studied in depth within the academic sphere. Tolerance and ethical compassion are not granted the attention they merit when it comes to analysing the phenomenon of hate speech.

Citation

Gracia-Calandín, J. and Suárez-Montoya, L. (2023), "The eradication of hate speech on social media: a systematic review", Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 406-421. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-11-2022-0098