Inequalities and the media: Spread and reception of hate speech against migrants and refugees in social media

This text approaches hate speech from the perspective of inequality, given that inequality is usually considered a basis for the appearance of hateful messages. At the same time, hate speech can lead to an increase in inequality by highlighting the differences and divisions between groups, mostly affecting the vulnerable ones. Focusing on hate speech against migrants and refugees spreading on social media in Spain, Italy, and Greece, this chapter analyses the sentiments, most frequent words, and latent topics of 36 000 messages. Using computational techniques, we show that hate speech follows similar patterns in the three countries, with a generally negative sentiment, and the most common topics are related to realistic (criminality, economic burden) or symbolic (different culture) threats, while also blaming politicians and demanding more restrictive policies. The work also reinforces the connection of hate speech with inequality, while showing the need to keep working on this approach.