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The purpose of this article is to draw attention to how harmful and inaccurate discourses pertaining to disaster responsibility is produced, the negative implications such narratives pose and the role of the media in the ways in which discourses about queerness and disaster are reported.

Throughout this paper, the authors detail examples of media reporting on discourses relating to people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) being blamed and held responsible for disasters across the world. The authors examine the value of such reporting as well as describing the harm blame narratives have on queer people and communities.

There is little value in reporting on accounts of people publicly declaring that people with diverse SOGIESC are to blame for disaster. More sensitivity is needed around publishing on blame discourses pertaining to already marginalised communities.

This article contributes to the developing scholarship on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, agender, asexual and aromantic individuals, plus other gender identities and sexual orientations (LGBTQIA+/SOGIESC) and disasters by detailing the harm of blame discourses as well as drawing attention to how the media have a role to play in averting from unintentionally providing a platform for hate speech and ultimately enhancing prejudice against people with diverse SOGIESC.

This study aims to make the reader aware of recent changes in the white supremacist movement and how such changes have altered the ways in which the movement can be combatted.

The authors study the movement in two periods: from 1970 to 2005 and from 2006 onward. The authors contrast the two periods and discuss the legal and financial issues within each.

The authors find that while legal concepts such as vicarious liability and respondeat superior apply today just as they did before, new tools are needed to fight the new means of financing the movement.

The main limitation of this study is the lack of quantitative data. Because the “alt-right” became popular around 2015, there has not been enough time for the construction of detailed data sets.

While many law papers have explored the white supremacist movement, the financing side has gone under-analyzed in scholarly research. This is important in light of the rise of the internet, online payment processors, cryptocurrencies and remote organizing and fundraising.

The 2017 Charlottesville rally was organized and financed via podcasts, online forums, encrypted chats and anonymous payments. Since then, the movement has mostly gone underground and has become more violent and radical as many members have come to believe that marches and politics do not help them.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no papers in finance that deal extensively with this topic. The authors believe that the severity of the issue and the importance of its funding make this study a valuable source of information. The recent changes occurring within the movement are likely to become even more critical to its success or failure in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between subjective well-being (SWB) and exposure to online hate material using samples of Finnish and American youth and young adults. The authors aim to identify socio-demographic determinants of SWB and the social ties prevalent both online and offline that may be relevant to the discussion of how hate material associates with well-being.

The data are derived from online survey responses from both Finnish (n=555) and American (n=1,014) young people aged 15-30. The authors control for the possible effects of social trust, offline friendships, online victimisation and economic status, which have been found to associate with SWB in earlier studies.

The findings show a clear association that highlights the uniformity in how negatively intended material online affects young people, despite the inclusion of a cross-national comparison. The study confirms previous work concerning happiness and life satisfaction.

The survey used was not designed solely to address issues of SWB and as such a more targeted set of questions may have resulted in more in-depth data. Also, structural determinants of SWB, social spheres, and tie strength were analysed through proxy measures.

The findings concerning new variables linked to well-being and victimization in the cross-national context provide a new point of reference in terms of online hate being associated with happiness.

The authors consider a number of descriptive characteristics, determining the relationship between these variables and participants’ happiness. Through this cross-national data set, new comparisons were made possible between internet users of both countries. The study combines many earlier findings with new variables and theoretical frameworks to add new perspectives to the understanding of how well-being is affected online among young people.

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven universities to deliver education online, making use of digital platforms for both formal and informal learning. This move has accelerated concerns regarding institutions’ capabilities to protect students from online abuse and support those who fall victim to its many forms. Empirical data drawn from UK universities prior to the pandemic highlight the lack of policy and practice across the university sector around both awareness of, and support from, online abuse among the student body. Further concerns during the pandemic, which highlight failures not just of safeguarding policy, but cybersecurity practice, demonstrate the need for universities to not only recognise their duty of care regarding student welfare but also to provide training and education for all, making use of online and hybrid higher education.

The idea that user comments on journalistic articles would help to increase the quality of the media has long been greeted with enthusiasm. By now, however, these high hopes have mostly evaporated. Practical experience has shown that user participation does not automatically lead to better journalism but may also result in hate speech and systematic trolling – thus having a dysfunctional impact on journalistic actors. Although empirical journalism research has made it possible to describe various kinds of disruptive follow-up communication on journalistic platforms, it has not yet succeeded in explaining what exactly drives certain users to indulge in flaming and trolling. This paper intends to fill this gap.

It does so on the basis of problem-centered interviews with media users who regularly publish negative comments on news websites.

The evaluation allows for a nuanced view on current phenomena of dysfunctional follow-up communication on journalistic news sites. It shows that the typical “troll” does not exist. Instead, it seems to be more appropriate to differentiate disruptive commenters according to their varying backgrounds and motives. Quite often, the interviewed users display a distinct political (or other) devotion to a certain cause that rather makes them appear as “warriors of faith.” However, they are united in their dissatisfaction with the quality of the (mass) media, which they attack critically and often with a harsh tone.

The study reflects these differences by developing a typology of dysfunctional online commenters. By helping to understand their aims and intentions, it contributes to the development of sustainable strategies for stimulating constructive user participation in a post-truth age.

This paper addresses some of the future challenges that the vote to leave the European Union (EU) may have on the UK’s constitutional framework. The potential abolition of the Human Rights Act 1998 and its replacement with a Bill of Rights is examined in relation to the interpretation of freedom of expression. More specifically, this is analysed in relation to the often conflicting freedoms to express homophobic views and to freely express one’s sexual identity. With EU law protecting many of the recently won rights favouring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality, the purpose of this paper is to underline the potential dangers should this layer of international scrutiny be lost and highlight where more improvements for equality are still needed.

This paper offers a critical reflection on the recent political and judicial rhetoric which has accompanied the issues of LGBT social and legal equality. Recent judgements from domestic and European courts are analysed to identify how any potential re-interpretation of freedom of expression may affect the LGBT community.

While the UK has made welcome strides in improving the legal equality of the LGBT community, it is argued that the potential loss of judicial scrutiny from the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice may have negative consequences. An examination of recent judicial and political discourse demonstrates that homophobic expression – or at least tacit acceptance of it – still permeates throughout these institutional spheres.

The paper highlights how the subtleties of constitutional changes following Brexit may threaten the current progression of LGBT rights in the UK and proposes that a commitment to freedom of expression must give greater recognition to the right to express sexual identity.

Coercive control (which is a form of intimate partner violence [IPV]) is a significant public health concern affecting millions of people throughout the world. Whilst exposure to IPV in childhood and adolescence has been shown to contribute to the intergenerational transmission of IPV, this alone does not explain IPV. A range of bio-psycho-social factors contribute to IPV which includes exposure to peer influence on social media platforms, whereby research has shown this online expression of views and opinions can change off-line behaviour. This has extended to not only purchasing products but also influencing attitudes in relation to illegal behaviour such as sexual harassment and sexual assault. The purpose of this study was to explore what young people are being exposed to online, through social media, surrounding coercive controlling behaviour.

According to Fazel et al. (2021), real-time social media data can provide important information about trends in public attitudes and attitudes towards events in the news. This study used data from Twitter to explore what adolescents are being exposed to online surrounding coercive and controlling behaviour. The data was subsequently analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Three overarching themes were found in relation to coercive control: the Educator; Gaslighter; and the Comedian. Two of these were forms of secondary victimisation.

Social media provides a powerful platform through which people’s attitudes and behaviours may be influenced both positively and negatively in relation to socio-political issues (Lozano-Blasco et al., 2022). The implications of the findings in this study are discussed with recommendations for how social media platforms could be supported to act prevent them from being used as a tool to facilitate the distribution of hate speech in relation to IPV and instead be used as a platform for psycho-education.

Previous research in this field has tended to focus on the impact of IPV and the prevalence rates of IPV in young people, but not on the different types of information young people may be exposed to surrounding relationships on social media platforms.

For more than 200 years, intellectual freedom has been a constitutional right of US citizens and the world’s oldest democracy. Librarians in particular have helped to protect this important right by ensuring that all citizens have access to whatever information they need. In her introductory article, Hannelore B. Rader enumerates the many examples of people in other countries who have not had or do not have access to all types of information. A good example is the former German Democratic Republic and the Berlin Wall. There are also examples in the USA where groups of people or individuals have tried and still try to censor information and to limit access to information. In the present electronic environment, intellectual freedom has become an even more complex issue by allowing individuals a forum to easily state their opinions, whether truth or propaganda. Librarians are experiencing a growth in “banned books” and controversies surrounding filtering software in public libraries. However, the ultimate question remains: should intellectual freedom be restricted? Contains an extensive bibliography of intellectual freedom resources compiled and annotated by Terri L. Holtze.