Social networks increase risk of exposure to hate speech: study

Social networks, including Facebook, increased an individual's risk of exposure to "offensive behaviours and hate speech", which could adversely impact users' mental wellbeing, a new study warns.

Scientists, including those from the Sapienza University of Rome, studied survey data from 50,000 people in 24,000 Italian households pertaining to internet and social network use, as also self-reported levels of happiness and self-esteem.

According to the researchers, social networks might threaten subjective well-being by eroding a user's trust in the rest of society with exposure to homophobic, racist or misogynistic content, 'The Telegraph' reported.

According to researchers, in online discussions with unknown people, individuals more easily indulged in aggressive and disrespectful behaviour.

They added online networks were also a fertile ground for spreading harmful, offensive, or controversial contents often lying at the verge between free speech and hate speech.

The hateful content could reduce the reader's trust in others and have a detrimental effect on their own wellbeing.

Earlier studies had shown social trust to be one of the strongest predictors of self-reported happiness.

Even simply reading derogatory comments - without responding to them could negatively impact the well-being of an internet user, according to the researchers. Also when it came to interacting in public comment threads, the study showed that common courtesy went out of the window, advocate.com reported.

"Interacting online entails a higher risk of being targeted with offensive behaviors and hate speech," the report reads. "This risk is particularly significant for women and users belonging to minorities or discriminated groups."

Whereas personal conversation tended to be accompanied by basic polite civilities, the researchers discovered that such niceties all but evaporated when people interacted online - where users did not have to be responsible for or even cognizant of how their comments were received.

"As a result, people care less of the risk of offending others in a conversation. In physical interactions, we usually think twice before insulting a person who politely expresses an opposing view," notes the study. "In online interactions, dealing with strangers who advance opposite views in an aggressive and insulting way seems to be a widespread practice, whatever the topic of discussion is."

Since people tended to socialise with others who shared similar views, experiences, and sentiments, the study pointed out that online interaction - unmoderated by location, ideology, or ethnicity could harshly expose individuals to aggressively contradictory opinions.