What is online hate and what can we do about it?
The spread of hate on social media and other digital platforms is a growing problem in our society.
Hate or hate speech has always existed, but social media, AI, and other digital platforms make it easier and cheaper to spread hate far and wide.
Online hate can harm individuals and communities and lead to serious offline consequences, including violence.
In this blog, you will learn:
- What is online hate?
- How are social media platforms enabling the spread of online hate?
- Is AI boosting online hate?
- What are the real-life consequences of online hate enabled by digital platforms?
- What can tech companies, governments, and lawmakers do to stop online hate?
- What can you do to help stop the spread of online hate and to increase your resilience?
Content Warning: Racist hate, anti-LGBTQ+ hate, antisemitism.
What is online hate?
Online hate refers to the use of pejorative or discriminatory hateful speech or actions against a person or group in digital spaces, including social media platforms – as defined by the United Nations. Online hate can be conveyed in different forms, but it always targets one or more aspects of a person’s or group’s identity – including religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender or any other identity factor.
According to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Minorities Issues, at least 70% of those targeted by hate crimes or hate speech on social media are minorities.
How are social media platforms enabling the spread of online hate?
Social media platforms have continuously failed to stop the spread of online hate, as shown by CCDH’s research.
It is not simply negligence: it is their business model. Social media algorithms are programmed to amplify content that boosts engagement – and hate is highly engaging, whether people sharing it agree or disagree with it. By retaining eyeballs, these companies collect and sell data to advertisers.
Social media giants have little incentive to act against the spread of online hate. Instead of making digital spaces safer, in the past few years, some companies have dismantled their content moderation teams and slashed their policies on online hate.
For example, in January 2025, when Mark Zuckerberg announced a “new era” for Meta, with policy changes that are a huge step backwards in addressing hate on its platforms. CCDH showed that Meta’s changes could stop up to 97% of proactive content enforcement in key areas, notably hate speech. Leaked internal guidance showed that the companies will now allow the following hateful statements:
- “Trans people aren’t real. They’re mentally ill.”
- “Immigrants are grubby, filthy pieces of shit.”
- “Black people are more violent than Whites.”
- “Mexicans are lazier than Asians.”
- “Jews are flat out greedier than Christians.”
Meta’s changes follow Twitter’s (now X). As soon as Elon Musk took over the company at the end of 2022, the platform began to constantly fail to enforce its policies on online hate. In March 2023, CCDH found that the number of tweets mentioning the anti-LGBTQ+ community alongside “grooming” slurs jumped 119% under Musk.
By May that year, Twitter (X) had failed to act on 99% of reported hateful tweets from verified subscribers promoting neo-Nazi, antisemitic, racist, and anti-LGBTQ+ hate.
More hate followed. In 2024, CCDH’s researchers found that X was enabling and profiting from hate and lies about Muslims and migrants in the aftermath of the UK Southport stabbings that led to the summer riots. A year later, we showed that calls for violence against the same groups were still easy to find on the platform.
For a deep dive on specific forms of online hate, read our explainers on:
Is AI boosting online hate?
AI makes it easier than ever to create and share hateful images, videos, and false information – often in minutes and at almost no cost. For example, in 2023 CCDH found that the AI program Midjourney can create racist and conspiratorial images and caricatures. Our researchers identified 100 examples of hateful images created from text descriptions, including one that shows Black Lives Matter protestors “looting and rioting”. The photo is fabricated, but such a realistic depiction can be weaponized to fuel hate against black people and Black Lives Matter, causing real-life consequences.
AI platforms are trained using large amounts of data available online. Without proper curation, the same hate, biases, and misinformation we find on the internet are replicated in the results, reinforcing and amplifying hateful narratives.
When AI platforms don’t have the systems in place to address hate speech, people can easily ask the tool to create hateful antisemitic or Islamophobic images, which they can post across social media and other digital channels. Since these images are controversial and create engagement, social media platforms then let them spread unchecked.
With unregulated AI, it takes only a few minutes – and almost no money – to flood the internet with online hate that can lead to real-life harms. Here you can learn more about how AI is boosting online hate and misinformation.
What are the real-life consequences of online hate enabled by digital platforms?
The spread and amplification of hate on social media can have serious real-life consequences. Studies have shown that people who are targeted by online hate have reported feeling anger, embarrassment, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
Other studies indicate that online hate using extreme and inflammatory language can fuel offline violence. Police investigations showed that perpetrators of horrific crimes, such as the Pittsburg Tree of Life synagogue shooting and the Charleston church shooting, had had contact with hateful white supremacist content online before committing mass murder.
As mentioned before, the 2024 UK summer riots were a textbook example of how the spread of online hate and misinformation targeting Muslims and migrants led to the violent unrest. At the time, mosques, hotels, and public buildings were attacked, law enforcement officers were injured, and innocent people with migrant and Muslim backgrounds were targeted by abuse.
From 2012 to 2017, the explosive combination of pre-existing ethnic tensions and social media-enabled hate and misinformation against the Rohingya Muslim minority fueled horrific killings and refugee crisis in Myanmar. In 2018, Facebook admitted to having failed to prevent its platform from being used to “foment division and incite offline violence” in the country.
What can tech companies, governments, and lawmakers do to stop online hate?
Social media and AI companies, governments, and legislators must prioritize people’s safety and ensure platforms don’t enable the spread of online hate.
Tech leaders should:
- Institute safety by design, considering people’s safety from the moment the platform is being constructed.
- Strengthen and enforce policies against hate, abuse, and misinformation.
- Stop amplifying and profiting from hate speech, online harms, and misinformation.
Governments and lawmakers should:
- Create and enforce regulations to hold social media platforms accountable for what is amplified by their platforms.
- Implement the four principles of CCDH’s STAR Framework for social media regulation: Safety-by-design, Transparency, Accountability, and Responsibility.
A safer internet is possible. It is on social media companies, governments, and lawmakers to start working together to build better online spaces for everyone.
What can you do to help stop the spread of online hate and to increase your resilience?
Tech companies should be responsible for the amplification of hate on their platforms. However, people can do their part to keep social media less toxic.
Here’s some practical advice on how to avoid sharing hate:
- Avoid sharing or engaging with online hate: Whether you are agreeing or disagreeing with hateful content, engaging with these posts only helps increase their reach.
- Report hateful content to the platforms: We know platforms can be bad at enforcing their own rules, but you should report hateful content when you see it.
- Don’t feed the trolls: Trolls are people who weaponize hateful or false content to boost their own profiles. Avoid engaging with them.
- Be skeptical of AI images: AI-generated images, audio, and videos can easily be used to spread online hate. Be skeptical of what you see online and avoid sharing.
Practice self-care:
- Set boundaries and take breaks: Limit your exposure to online hate and avoid constantly refreshing your social media feed. Avoid exposure to distressing content when you are feeling tired or down, or when you are alone with no one to talk to.
- Talk to a family member, a friend, and to kids: If you find the content distressing, discuss your feelings with a trusted friend or family member. Sometimes, sharing your concerns can help alleviate stress. If you have children, take a moment to speak to your children about the hateful content they are seeing on social media and online.
- Seek professional help: If you find yourself struggling to cope with online hate, consider speaking to a mental health professional.
CCDH is working towards a future where everyone can feel safe online by producing research and campaigning for regulation.
Want to stay safer online? CCDH offers a free Digital and Information Resilience Training to help you navigate the internet more safely. Register your interest below ⬇️
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