Report: Cyberhate targeting the body

Cyberhate is a broad concept that includes different manifestations of online hate speech. It is prejudiced and stereotypical online content and bias-motivated cyberaggression that targets people due to their perceived group membership or group characteristics. This includes ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and gender. Cyberhate can also attack people because of their disabilities or physical appearance. It can take the form of private messages but also posts on social media or comments in online discussions.

The focus of this report is on cyberhate in the news and in discussions on social media which targets three groups:

• people who are overweight or plus-size;
• people who are underweight or very thin; and
• people with physical disabilities or handicaps that significantly limit their mobility.

Key findings

Group perceptions:

• Young people’s perceptions of group entitativity and group qualification was, on average, the highest for people with physical disabilities. The perceptions of people who are overweight or underweight were similar.
• There were only small differences in positive outgroup attitudes toward the three groups. Positive attitudes were high for all groups. People with physical disabilities were rated highest.

Hate speech perceptions:

• Young people were the most sensitive to cyberhate targeting people with physical disabilities, recognising it as ‘hate speech’ to a higher extent than attacks on people who are overweight or underweight.
• Women showed greater sensitivity to classifying the attacks on all three groups as ‘hate speech’.

Victimisation experiences:

• Young people more frequently reported personal cyberhate victimisation due to weight (i.e., overweight or underweight) and less frequently due to having physical disabilities.
• Regular or daily cyberhate victimisation during the preceding six months was reported by 5.7% (physical disability), 6.7% (overweight), and 9.0% (underweight) of the participants.