Political hate speech between Europe and the United States

The United States has exceptionally strong Constitutional protections for free speech, but also for religious freedom. This chapter considers how this unique legal framework affects hate spin in the country. It finds that although hate speech can be expressed with a high degree of impunity, strong anti-discrimination laws limit the harms caused by such speech. Hate spin can, nonetheless, succeed in fostering fear and cultivating prejudice against minorities. The chapter examines how a network of anti-Muslim activists have used hate spin to campaign against mosque building, to oppose multi-cultural textbooks, and to introduce legislation protecting states from the fabricated threat of encroaching Muslim law. Beyond their stated goals, which may be frustrated by courts, these campaigns often have the symbolic purpose of spreading Islamophobia.

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Rumors on the Net: A Brackish Suspension of Speech and Hate

Law Culture and the Humanities ◽

10.1177/1743872119880121 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 174387211988012 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Anne Wagner ◽

Sarah Marusek

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Social Media ◽

Hate Speech ◽

Public Memory ◽

The United States ◽

Online Social Media ◽

Cyber Culture ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

The Impact ◽

Mob Mentality

The legitimacy of public memory and socially normative standards of civility is questioned through rumors that abound on online social media platforms. On the Net, the proclivity of rumors is particularly prone to acts of bullying and frameworks of hate speech. Legislative attempts to limit rumors operate differently in France and throughout Europe from the United States. This article examines the impact of online rumors, the mob mentality, and the politicization of bullying critics within a cyber culture that operates within the limitations of law.

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The cult structure of the American anti

Transformative Works and Cultures ◽

10.3983/twc.2021.2147 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 36 ◽

Author(s):

Samantha Aburime

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Young Adults ◽

Hate Speech ◽

The United States ◽

People Of Color ◽

Online Spaces ◽

Dangerous Behaviors ◽

Damaging Effects

The online-based group known as antis, which originated around 2016 in the United States, exhibit morality-based, cult-like behavior and perpetuate hate speech and censorship in online spaces. Anti ideology has encouraged harmful, obsessive, and dangerous behaviors among its members, specifically minors and young adults. An analysis of the antifandom movement through political, sociological, and behavioral lenses reveals its damaging effects on women, people of color, minors, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

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Making Refuge

American Journal of Islam and Society ◽

10.35632/ajis.v34i3.792 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 165-168

Author(s):

Saulat Pervez

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Hate Speech ◽

The United States ◽

Somali Bantu ◽

Extended Families ◽

Refugee Community ◽

Somali Refugee ◽

Anthropological Fieldwork ◽

Village Life ◽

Village Elders

The term refugees has become the latest buzzword, causing people to eitherspew hate speech or extend a warm welcome – thereby creating a firmdividing line. There is so much discussion about refugees that peoplesometimes forget the very individuals who are forced to stand astride thatdividing line. Who are they? What are their stories? What does it mean tobe a refugee? How are they coping once they reach the United States?How are their lives impacted by this divisive debate? What are the strugglesthey continue to have? How are they influencing the larger communitieswhere they live? Catherine Besteman addresses all of these questions(and more) in her timely study, Making Refuge: Somali Bantu Refugeesand Lewiston, Maine.Besteman introduces the book by speaking of her yearlong stay in Banta,Somalia, as part of her anthropological fieldwork during the late 1980s, justbefore civil war broke out. She then immediately shifts the lens to Lewiston,Maine, in the year 2010, home to a large Somali refugee community. Juxtaposingthese two worlds to frame her inquiry, she delves into Banta’s pre-warhistory: a simple yet harmonious village life built around communitarianismand happiness within poverty, of agriculture and the “rule” of village elders, ofpre-defined gender roles and extended families ...

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Defunding Hate: PayPal’s Regulation of Hate Groups

Surveillance & Society ◽

10.24908/ss.v17i1/2.12908 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 17 (1/2) ◽

pp. 46-53

Author(s):

Natasha Tusikov

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Regulatory Authority ◽

Hate Speech ◽

The United States ◽

Public Debate ◽

Hate Groups ◽

Screening Practices ◽

Critical Questions ◽

White Supremacists

The riot by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, generated a public debate about the role of platforms in policing users involved in violent hate speech. PayPal’s efforts on this issue, in removing services from some designated hate groups while continuing to serve others, highlights the challenges payment platforms face when they act, whether formally or informally, as regulators. This article examines PayPal’s policies and enforcement efforts, both proactive and reactive, in removing its services from hate groups in the United States. It pays particular attention to the surveillance and screening practices that PayPal employs to proactively detect users who violate its policies. The article argues that public calls for PayPal to identify and remove its services from hate groups raise critical questions about ceding broad regulatory authority to platforms and reveal the serious challenges of relying upon commercial enterprises to address complex social problems.

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From Honor to Dignity: Criminal Libel, Press Freedom, and Racist Speech in Brazil and the United States

Vanderbilt e-Journal of Luso-Hispanic Studies ◽

10.15695/vejlhs.v10i0.4206 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Jan Hoffman French

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

World War Ii ◽

Free Speech ◽

Hate Speech ◽

The United States ◽

Press Freedom ◽

World War ◽

Public Officials ◽

Human Rights Organizations ◽

The U.S

Reports on violence against journalists in Brazil have captured the concern of international human rights organizations. This article discusses a case involving another such concern: the use of criminal defamation laws in Brazil to punish journalists for criticizing public officials. At the same time, Brazilian media sources regularly report on crimes of racism, which most often involve derogatory name-calling and hate speech. By examining the intersection of these apparently contradictory concerns, this article sheds new light on speech rights in Brazil and the United States and argues that a comparative perspective is crucial to contextualizing and harmonizing free speech and its limitations under modern democratic constitutions. By considering the infusion of traditional notions of honor and status with post-World War II views of dignity, this article argues for a comparative consideration of how best to combat racism and whether hate speech regulation in the U.S. should be reconsidered. As such, the type of law often used to protect the powerful in Brazil could come to be used to protect the vulnerable in the United States and opens the possibility that the irony of free speech could become more than just a scholarly debate.

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