Balázs Elek
Associate Proffessor
Hate speech is any kind of spoken or written expression aimed to humiliating, intimidating, inciting violence, or provoking prejudicial actions against a particular societal group. Hate speech is usually directed at members of minority groups in connection with race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identification or disability. For texts that are published on the Internet, there is no way to monitor the age of the readers or how they may interpret a given. Interpretations can vary greatly among different age
groups.
When hate speech is employed in spoken or written form, the speaker consciously uses
linguistic expressions that constitute defamation, label, intimidation or other offenses,
for instance Holocaust denial. Such language is often concealed within web-based and
social-media texts; the writer deliberately uses expressions that appear entirely
acceptable on the surface. Hate speech is already punishable as an independent
category of criminal law.