One in every three people who watch videos online have come across hateful content in the past three months, the UK media regulator Ofcom said in a report.?
While the hate speech was mostly directed towards a racial group, religious groups, transgender people and those of a particular sexual orientation were also commonly targeted.
According to the survey, a quarter of users said they had been exposed to bullying, abusive behaviour and threats, and the same proportion had seen violent or disturbing content. This comes despite recent steps that social media firms have taken to address harassment.
The report mentioned that video-sharing sites should use tools that allow users to quickly and effectively report or flag harmful videos. They should also be clear about how quickly they will respond, and be transparent about any action taken, it added.
¡°Although video services are making progress in protecting users, there¡¯s much further to go,¡± Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom¡¯s Group Director for Broadcasting and Online Content, said in a statement. ¡°We¡¯re setting out how companies should work with us to get their houses in order--giving children and other users the protection they need, while maintaining freedom of expression.¡±
Social media giant Facebook has of late been facing severe criticism over its handling and labelling of hate speech on the platform. A Wall Street Journal report in December last year that Facebook¡¯s Ankhi Das, the then top public policy head in India, had opposed applying hate-speech rules to BJP politicians.
India has seen a significant increase in hate speech, scams, frauds and discrimination for online users in the last 3-4 years, says a Microsoft study.
For online users in India, hate speech doubled from 2016 to 26 per cent in 2020, the software giant said. The country also saw a 5 per cent increase in hoaxes, scams and frauds since 2017 to 22 per cent, and a 6 per cent increase in discrimination since 2016 to 16 per cent.
According to Facebook, there were 7-8 views of hate speech for every 10,000 views of content on the platform in the fourth quarter of 2020. And it took action on a total of 33.5 million pieces of hate speech content on Facebook and Instagram and 11.3 million pieces of bullying and harassment content.