The hate barometer: nine out of 100 pieces of content posted by political figures are offensive, discriminatory or incite contempt

ROME – Nine out of 100 contents published online by politicians were found to be offensive, discriminatory or incite hatred. It was discovered by the Hate barometer from Amnesty International Italywhich with the one dedicated to the “Political elections 2022” is now in its sixth edition. In five weeks, around 29,000 pieces of content were collected from the Facebook pages and Twitter accounts of 85 politicians running for national elections. To analyze them, one by one, was a team of 50 activists and experts of the organization. If in 9% of posts and tweets politicians used hate language, narrowing the lens to cases of real hate speech one content out of 100 incites discrimination against a person or group of people on the basis of personal characteristics or calls for the limitation of their rights. It is the hate language that is the most “awarded” by users in terms of likes, shares and comments.

Offenses between politicians and communication strategies. Of all the offensive and discriminatory content observed, four out of 10 were attacks by politicians on other politicians, to the detriment of human rights, covered in only a quarter of the content. The topics that have most often been subjected to hate speech are immigration (53 per cent), religious minorities (36 per cent), the world of solidarity (35 per cent), Lgbtqia+ (31 per cent) and gender justice (26 per cent). percent). Another form of intolerance and discrimination is also emerging, that of people in a state of socio-economic disadvantage. Parties and politicians have followed different online communication strategies. The centre-right coalition published more than twice as much offensive and/or discriminatory content as the centre-left coalition: nine per cent compared to four per cent. Action-Italia Viva was placed in the center with six per cent, while the Movimento 5 Stelle had three per cent of content of this type.

The most active: Lega, Azione and Fratelli d’Italia. Looking at the five politicians who have published the most offensive posts and tweets, who have incited discrimination and in which they have attacked other politicians, the parties to which they are attributable are three: five politicians of the League (Matteo Salvini, Manfredi Potenti, Claudio Borghi Aquilini, Edoardo Rixi and Severino Nappi – the latter not elected), two from Fratelli d’Italia (Lucio Malan, Roberto Menia), one from Action (Carlo Calenda). These are the same parties revealed by observing the names of politicians who have expressed themselves in a more discriminatory way with respect to human rights.

Energy to spend on other goals. “If politicians devoted the energies they put into insulting each other to talk about rights in a constructive way – commented Riccardo Noury, spokesman for Amnesty International Italy – we would already be one step ahead in the fight against discrimination. Instead intolerance, social exclusion, marginality start right here: from the absence of themes and people in the public debate; from stereotyped representations and generalizations; by the language of hate that is cleared by those who should be the first to set a good example”.