Deconstructing Hate Speech in both Social Media (Facebook) and Real Life Situations in Connection with Ethnicity and Race: Tiaret Speech Community as a Sample.

Abstract

The ultimate objective behind the current research is an attempt to deconstruct hate speech both on social media (Facebook) and real-life situations in connection with ethnicity and race. It aims to check whether hate speech is more prevalent online or offline, and determine the reasons behind its spread to examine individuals' perceptions and attitudes towards hate speech in Tiaret speech community. In order to conduct this study, a mixed method was adopted, viz., qualitative and quantitative approaches. It should be noted that owing to the imposed drastic sanitary measures, the questionnaire, encompassing 13 questions, was distributed and published online to gather sufficient data. It was helpful to assess the frequency of hate speech within Tiaret community based on the informants' experiences while taking into consideration their opinions about the recent hate speech crisis. Besides, we adopted content analysis to address our research from a realistic perspective, which was useful to evaluate the intensity of the generated Facebook post and/or comment considering factors such as the identity of the poster or the commentator and also to identify the linguistic choices, vocabulary and structures offenders tend to use. The findings reveal that hate speech is more predominant on social media than in real life, especially among Tiaret community members. It also indicates that ethnicity and race, mainly physical appearance, are the most offended aspects of victims' identities. Overall, it offers various strategies and solutions for fighting/preventing hate speech.