Canada not immune to online hatred, poll finds

Worry over virtual spread greater than problem with speech restrictions

Canadians belonging to racialized communities are three times more likely to have experienced hate speech on social media than their non-racialized counterparts, a recent poll suggests.

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation, a Crown corporation tasked with fostering racial harmony and eliminating racism in Canada, surveyed 2,000 people from Jan. 15 to Jan. 18, to find out their opinion on the level of hate and racism on social media networks in the country.

In the wake of recent events in the U.S. after rising levels of polarized discourse on online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the poll aimed to gauge Canadians’ perception of how potent these platforms have been in sowing hate speech and racism online.

The poll suggests that while social media networks remain prominent platforms to express one’s opinions, Canadians are widely concerned with their ability to rapidly promote and spread dangerous rhetoric.

“By a two to one margin, Canadians are far more troubled by the impact of online hate speech on fellow citizens than they are with curbing freedom of speech or restrictions to privacy,” the report said.

Mohammed Hashim, the executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, said hateful discourse has been fuelled by social media’s promise of anonymity.

“Hate speech and racism are things that have always been with us, but social media platforms allow them to be disseminated under the veil of anonymity to much wider audiences,” he said in the report.

“The fact that most Canadians see this as a problem, is all the more reason why our government needs to make online hate speech regulation a policy priority.”

The poll also found that racialized Canadians, who make up nearly 20 per cent of the total population, are “almost three times more likely” to have experienced racism online than non-racialized Canadians.

In fact, whether the hateful discourse consist of racism, sexist comments, homophobia, physical threats or sexual harassment, across every item, racialized Canadians are more likely to experience hate online.

The poll showed a wide consensus among Canadians about the need for government intervention to improve the state of affairs online.

At least 60 per cent of respondents believe the federal government should use legislation to regulate social media platforms, to prevent the spread of racist and hateful rhetoric online.

After the riots on the U.S. Capitol

Jan. 6, Ottawa expressed its intent to introduce legislation in February or March to crack down on the posting of hate speech, child sexual abuse material and other illegal content on social media platforms.

The poll’s results suggest that an overwhelming majority of Canadians want further action. About 80 per cent of Canadians believe social media companies should be “required to remove hate speech from their platforms within 24 hours of it being posted.”

The poll found 79 per cent of Canadians are also concerned about “the rise of extremist organizations in Canada like in the U.S.,” and the role social media is playing.

“It is also evidence that Canada is far from immune to online expressions of hate and racism,” Hashim said.

The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is plus or minus 2.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.