Czech hate online is out of control, the situation is unsustainable: LGBT+ people, Romani people, and Ukrainian people are the most threatened
Nine out of 10 young people in Czechia were subjected to hate speech through the Internet last year. Attacks on LGBT+ people, Romani people, and Ukrainian people are particularly frequent.
Hate in the Czech-language online space has become an everyday reality for those who are different from the mainstream in some way, be that through their appearance, their identity, or their origin. A survey by the Ipsos agency, undertaken in collaboration with the In IUSTITIA organization and the communications company T-Mobile, researched the experiences of young people between the ages of 11 and 21, not just with hate speech, but also with cyberbullying.
A total of 816 respondents took the survey, 578 of them majority-society members and 194 members of selected minority groups who are more threatened by hate speech. The survey showed that as many as 94 % of young people encountered hate speech on the Internet during the past 12 months.
The attacks were said to most often target Ukrainians (50 %), the LGBT+ community (43 %), and Romani people (31 %). Other targets were refugees, people whose bodies look different, women, or people sharing their political opinions.
Of the groups under threat, 63 % were subjected to hate speech at least once a week and 73 % felt bad because of it. Hate speech is not an isolated problem of some victims, therefore, but the everyday reality of whole groups of young people who vary from the “majority norm”.
Hate is not the exception, but an everyday experience
An analyst from the Ipsos agency, Michal Kormaňák, warns that there is very little data available about hate speech online in the Czech language. “For the time being, there has been a minimum of surveys of the subject of hate speech online [in Czech] and we are now presenting up-to-date data,” he said in the press release on the research sent to news server Romea.cz.
According to the Ipsos analyst, the survey has shown that young people frequently grasp the concept of hate speech as covering a wider range of phenomena than academics do because they encounter it every day. The findings also indicate that cyberbullying is such an extensive phenomenon that many young people have stopped perceiving it as bullying at all.
“On the other hand, cyberbullying occurs to such an extent that respondents frequently do not even consider it to be cyberbullying anymore – it will be necessary to respond to that and to design measures to address it through various organizations and in the schools,” Kormaňák said. Klára Kalibová, an attorney who is the director of the In IUSTITIA organization, has been calling for a fundamental transformation to the approach toward hate speech in the online environment.
According to the attorney, the findings of the research clearly demonstrate that prejudices toward minorities are deeply rooted in Czech society. “Every young person from the LGBT+ community encountered hate speech during the last year, one-fifth of them daily. That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” she told Romea.cz.
Kalibová also warns that while the research sample took selected threatened groups into account, it does not fully represent the real number of minorities living in the Czech Republic. “The research sample has its limits with regard to the representation of minorities – for instance, it does not reflect the real number of Romani people and Ukrainians in the Czech Republic,” she said.
According to the attorney, there is a basic conclusion to draw from this: “It is possible to presume, with certainty, that the number of those who have met with hate speech online is really even higher.”
Every third young person has had to brave insults and slanders in Czech online
Cyberbullying is the other basic phenomenon tracked by the research. The numbers are just as alarming – 67 % of adolescents said they had become the victims of cyberbullying.
This most often involved the spreading of slander (34 %), curses and insults (31 %), or remarks questioning their appearance, clothing, or origin. The research also revealed that 26 % of the victims never confided in anybody about these experiences, primarily boys, whose willingness to confide in others significantly declines the older they are.
Young people process their experiences with cyberbullying and hate speech differently – almost half said they do not respond to such attacks, while almost half said they choose to approach them actively. A total of 44 % of respondents said they ignore hate speech while 45 % actively respond, most often by blocking the attacker, reporting the post, or commenting on it.
Members of threatened groups are more distinctly willing to actively defend themselves, where as many as 66 % of respondents reported actively responding. According to the research, the main motivations of those who decide to respond are the need to stand up for others, an attempt to correct the record, and a sense of responsibility.
Experts are calling for systemic transformation
Experts warn of the necessity for systemic measures to address this both through legislation and in the schools. “The Czech Republic is currently catching up on its implementation of the European directive called the Digital Services Act. Among other things, the directive strengthens the credibility of special ‘trusted flagger’ organizations and says the Czech Telecommunications Authority has to address their warnings of harmful content as a matter of priority. From our perspective and for the effective protection of vulnerable groups, including children and youth, it is crucial that these rules actively apply as soon as possible,” said Marek Vrbík of the Czech Telecommunications Authority.
Attacks motivated by bias are very serious and frequently ignored. Have you become the victim of a bias crime in the Czech Republic? Call the free phone line of the In IUSTITIA organization, 800 922 922, or contact the ROMEA, o.p.s. organization.
Czech Deputy Justice Minister Karel Dvořák also warned of the necessity for a legal response: “To ensure genuinely effective protection to hate speech victims wherever they are, as well as to the victims of cyberbullying, it is essential that the law recognize it and know how to respond to it. Within the criminal law framework this involves expanding hate crime motivations and punishing them more severely.”
Martin Orgoník, Director of Public Relations and Sustainability at T-Mobile, considered the findings of the research a stimulus for wider reflection on this in society. He recalled that hate speech in public frequently crosses the line of what is lawful and what is moral.
“Hate in the public space sometimes crosses the line of what is lawful, but it always crosses the line of ordinary human decency,” Orgoník said. According to him, recently-publicized cases of the hate speech among schoolchildren in the Czech Republic are especially alarming.
Orgoník stressed that T-Mobile has long dedicated itself to creating a safe online environment and said he believes the data from the research could contribute to improving prevention in the schools, too. “We have numbers now. We are presenting them to the public and we firmly believe that experts will also be thinking about their causes and their further possible prevention. We at T-Mobilu have long been focused on building a safe, respectful online environment. The poll will aid not just specialized organizations to effectively solve this problem through education and prevention, but I believe it can also assist schools with focusing on the prevention and protection of the most vulnerable among us,” he said.
The research is part of T-Mobile’s longstanding mission in the area of digital inclusion, according to the company. In addition to its No Hate project, it also runs a grant called Česko bez předsudků [Czechia without Prejudice] focusing on support to organizations addressing bias crime, including hatred toward LGBT+ people, Romani people, and other groups.
