As of: February 13, 2024, 8:10 p.m
By: Giorgia Grimaldi
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Digital hate is increasing and endangers not only women and discriminated against groups, but also the entire democracy.
Experts are calling for an immediate offensive.
“Woah, you’re fat!”, or “you whore!”: hate comments that the influencer and presenter Louisa Dellert knows.
She has been active on social media for ten years.
At the beginning there was a mean comment.
“When I started becoming more political, talking about the environment, it increased.
Especially during the Corona period.
It was no longer just about my looks, it became personal.
I was wished dead,” Dellert tells
BuzzFeed News Germany
, a portal owned by
Ippen.Media
.
Dellert is not alone with these experiences.
A new nationwide study shows: 49 percent of the 3,000 respondents have already been victims of digital violence.
Every second person withdraws online because of hatred and more than half of users express their political opinions less often due to fear of hatred.
The survey was carried out by NETTZ, the Society for Media Education and Communication Culture, the organization Hate Aid and the New German Media Makers Network.
More on this: Women are massively insulted on Instagram, but the platform almost never takes action
New study shows: Women and minorities are particularly affected by hate online
Young women, people with a visible migration background, Muslim people, Jewish people, members of the LGBTQI+ community and non-white people are particularly affected.
A user managed to find Dellert's address and demolished her mailbox.
“And it’s not just me.
You can observe what you are still outraged about and what you are not.
More and more things are being felt that a few years ago we would have thought we simply shouldn't say, are now just everyday life.
It’s totally increased.”
“People with diverse perspectives are withdrawing, the discourse is narrowing, so there is much more room for extreme positions.
“This is an attack on the diversity of opinions,” says Elena Kountidou, managing director of the New German Media Makers, at the press conference to present the study on February 13th in Berlin.
More on this: Massive increase in hate online – queer young people particularly affected
Louisa Dellert defends herself against hate on the Internet © Laura Hoffmann/IMAGO Symbolbild Phototek.
Editing: BuzzFeed DE
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Federal Minister Lisa Paus warns: “Analog violence arises from digital hatred”
According to the study, democracy is under pressure because the Internet is the most important
Debate space is primarily used by right-wing extremists.
Their goal: to systematically spread disinformation, threats of violence, discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism.
Especially in this year’s “super election year” with the upcoming state and European elections.
Lisa Paus, Federal Minister for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, says: “The numbers show: Hate on the Internet is omnipresent and is increasing.
He is a threat to democracy as a whole.
Civil society and the federal government must do more.
Because: The online world and offline world depend on each other, they are now one.
Digital hate gives rise to analog violence.”
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“Algorithms have no morals” – experts want to regulate platforms more tightly
The mechanisms of social media platforms are, among other things, responsible for this, explains Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, managing director of Hate Aid.
“Algorithms have no morals, they don’t care what content they use to keep people active, but outrageous content works particularly well.
They go viral and are shown to even more people.
And right-wing extremists in particular use this for their own purposes.”
She demands: “It cannot be the case that only such polarizing content is displayed in public spaces where we hold our most important political debates.
We need a stronger civil society and the regulation of platforms.
The problem needs to be addressed systemically.”
This is supposed to happen through the “Digital Services Act”, an EU law on digital services.
Accordingly, supervisory authorities must take greater responsibility for the platforms, monitor them and propose appropriate measures.
While it has already come into force in some EU countries, in Germany it will come into effect on February 17th.
But that's not all, explains Paus: "The topic has a high priority within the federal government."
However, a triad of “regulation, control and prevention” is required.
This also includes media literacy offerings for civil society and advice centers.”
Influencer wants to encourage victims of digital violence: “At some point a structural problem will become visible”
Dellert is also committed to this.
She is the first signatory of an open letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, written by Hate Aid, which offers advice and legal support for victims of digital violence.
The demand is: an immediate offensive for compliance with human rights on the Internet.
She forwards every hate comment she receives to the aid organization, and some of them she also publishes her own post on Instagram.
“I want to encourage others to stand up and report it.
Many people don't go to the police or go to Hate Aid because they think it won't help. And often enough nothing happens, Dellert admits.
But: “Every ad ends up in statistics and at some point a structural problem becomes visible.”
More on this: Freedom of expression on Twitter “only applies until it affects Musk,” warns Reporters Without Borders