Hate speech in social media: personal experiences and perceptions of university students in Bangladesh
Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication
ISSN: 2514-9342
Article publication date: 12 April 2022
Issue publication date: 20 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Social media (SM) is a new communication tool that substantially contribute to facilitating online hate speech (OHS). In emphasis of the question “what role can SM play in an individual’s life?”, this study aims to understand Bangladeshi university students’ personal experiences and opinions of OHSs related to SM.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used an online survey method to collect data and retrieved responses from 410 students. Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis test and Spearman’s rank correlation analysis were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
This study found that hate speech is a familiar term among students. Students’ political views or opinions, religion and gender have become the most targeted instruments for OHSs. Comparing students’ use of SM, the authors found that Facebook was the most used SM site to spread hate speech in Bangladesh. In terms of personal experiences, the findings indicated that 45.6% of students became victims of OHSs at least once or more times, and the majority of students tended to simply avoid OHSs. Another significant finding was that OHS has real-life effects on the students, resulting in various personal and psychological distress.
Originality/value
Although some research has been conducted on hate speech at the local level, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has focused on the student community. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt in Bangladesh to focus on OHSs from a student’s personal viewpoint.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely acknowledge the sophisticated minds whose contribution made this research possible. Dr S.M. Zabed Ahmed and Dr Md. Anwarul Islam from the department of Information Science and Library Management of the University of Dhaka profoundly guided us throughout the whole research process.
Citation
Atikuzzaman, M. and Akter, S. (2023), "Hate speech in social media: personal experiences and perceptions of university students in Bangladesh", Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, Vol. 72 No. 8/9, pp. 835-851. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-01-2022-0014
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited