Who hates how often in digital Switzerland?
research areas
timeframe
- present
contact
stahel@soziologie.uzh.ch
Who “hates” how often in digital Switzerland?
The extent of digital hate speech and its socio-structural foundations
The project deals with the frequency of perpetrators and victims of digital hate speech in Switzerland and their socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics. It also develops a differentiated survey instrument to measure digital hate speech.
This project aims to determine for the first time the proportion of perpetrators and victims of digital hate speech among internet users in Switzerland. In doing so, a survey will not only investigate the frequency of perpetrators and victims, but also in which socio-demographic and socio-economic groups they are particularly prevalent. In addition, a differentiated survey instrument for digital hate speech will be developed for survey studies and used for the first time in the planned survey in all three major language regions of Switzerland. The survey results inform the development of target group-specific countermeasures. The additional elaborated measurement instrument for digital hate speech advances science.
Background
We identify two research gaps in Switzerland: (1) There is no knowledge about the proportion of perpetrators and victims of digital hate speech among internet users and about their socio-structural backgrounds, and (2) there is a lack of precise, delimitable and survey-ready measures of digital hate speech that take into account non-truthful statements.
Research Questions
- What is the percentage of perpetrators and victims of digital hate speech among internet users in Switzerland?
- Which socio-structural groups are particularly frequently or rarely represented?
- How can digital hate speech be measured in a precise, differentiated and at the same time survey-friendly way?
Project Aim
The aim is to answer the questions raised by means of a survey in a representative sample (in German/French/Italian-speaking Switzerland), including the development of a differentiated survey instrument for digital hate speech.