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How does one so easily wish on social media “death” or “cancer”? The frightening rise of threats and hate speech

The answer to the title question is immediate and easy. The fact that one wishes a person to die or even worse to get cancer should not be considered “cool”. That is, to suffer until death. It should not even exist in the realm of tolerance. We do not need some kind of great observation of reality to say that everything around us is running at breakneck speed and the value of human life has now been degraded to something… unnecessary.

People who move daily in their world social media will have noticed that there is a rapid increase, in recent years, in verbal violence, intimidation and all kinds of threats. Whether it is a written word or a transfer through a multimedia, such as photos or videos.

The same observation can be made from a random walk on the road. Either on foot or driving your vehicle. Human insults have increased dramatically, including to death threats, which are often accompanied by physical violence. After all, the fine line between verbal and physical violence is very thin and many times are two sides of the same coin.

In both cases, the words “fat” and “cancer” have their place. The question, however, remains. Have we reached this point of social disintegration that we feel good about wishing someone to die? Or even if we feel good with such a “wish” can we really see someone die in front of us and be okay with it?

Psychologists say that the phenomenon of the increase of extreme verbal violence and the escalation of threats in recent years is an empirical phenomenon and there is no recorded data in research so that there can be some estimates as to the causes of the problem.

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“The social media user feels that his verbal behavior has no consequences”

Angeliki Kardara, Doctor of the Department of Communication & Mass Media at EKPA, Philologist, Regular Scientific Associate of the Center for the Study of Crime & Scientific Director of the Crime & Media Lab, spoke about the phenomenon on Newsbeast.

Ms. Kardara said the issue was serious and needed “in-depth consideration”:

“The phenomenon that we could define as ‘verbal violence via the internet’ must undoubtedly concern us and be examined in depth, because it takes on serious dimensions and extensions. In fact, it is a topic that is the subject of discussion among young scientists, let me tell you at this point that it has been put on the table several times with our trainees at the Center for the Study of Crime and we consider it important to conduct a thorough research on interpretation but and to address it.

This is a multifactorial phenomenon, in my opinion, that has deep roots. We must first take into account the context in which the phenomenon is evolving. The internet is a vast environment, largely imaginary reality, with the result that the user of the medium feels that he is not bound by boundaries and that his verbal behavior has no consequences. “The internet is mainly based on the concept of self-regulation, so the behaviors we encounter in it are many and varied.”

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Mimicry and fanaticism

It is generally accepted by social media users, in particular, that the conditions prevailing in cyberspace are highly polarized. Whether you are in black or white. Any other perception can “die in a corner”.

Ms. Kardara explains that social media itself cultivates fertile ground for mimicry and fanaticism: “Secondly, intense imitation is recorded, since the medium itself cultivates fertile ground for such comments that are easily found by imitators. Imitators who can even start with good intentions to comment on a topic or a person and end up being “fanatical” through this endless exchange of comments on social media.

Thirdly, we must not overlook that in many cases the cultivation of fanaticism may even be motivated by serving specific expediencies. So here we need to be careful not to get trapped in a game “set up” by others and we end up losing the essence of the situations “.

“Relief of negative emotions”

Social media and the internet as a place of inexpensive relief from the problems that overwhelm users in their real life.

The Doctor of the Department of Communication & Mass Media at EKPA states: «We could even say that it is, for some, a kind of “release of very negative emotions” that in their life, offline, can not manifest, or manifest the consequences. But without a name and a surname, with a fake profile they feel that they are gaining a -paradisally- power.

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The phenomenon reveals a wider social pathogenesis and a lack of education. But we must shield ourselves from this and limit it. It is a matter of education and most importantly, our children are copying behaviors, so we must first improve our own behavior and set a positive example for our youth.».

He concludes: “In conclusion, let us not forget that our verbal choices reveal elements of our personality. The words “count” and can hurt irreparably. I will close with the following statement: The “face” of verbal violence is just as harsh as other forms of violence.

From politicians to teachers: No one escapes the curses

In an extensive article, the Guardian analyzes the research findings on the growing trends of this dangerous phenomenon. From the moment one is in the public sphere, one automatically becomes a potential recipient of threats to one’s life. Whether he is a politician or a schoolteacher. Social media is a field of public life. Each and every one has a public status. And as such a “public figure” can be subjected to verbal violence and cyberbullying anytime.

The figures published by the British newspaper are shocking. The National Association of Teacher Directors (NAHT) says some of its members have received death threats because they teach their students equality and things for the LGBTQ community. However, no one spoke to the Guardian. “One principal is terrified of the experience because he wants to discuss it again and another is constantly being attacked so he does not want to cause more attention to himself or his school,” said a NAHT spokesman.

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Last year, there was a 13% increase in reports of murder threats in England and Wales, with 42,307 of these threats being received between April 2020 and March 2021, up from 37,347 the previous year. Looking back, in 1981 there were only 620 reports of “threat or conspiracy to commit murder” (the old name for the crime) and only 102 in 1971.

Then there are the people accused under the “Communication” law of 2003, for sending “extremely offensive messages via electronic communications”. In the 2020/21 season there were 275,628 reports of threatening communications, according to the England and Wales Crime Survey. Of these, only 1,096 went to court in 2020, up from 1,511 in 2010. Rarely is there also any severe punishment of the perpetrators.

Professor Neil Chakraborti, director of the Center for Hate Studies at the University of Leicester, believes that even these statistics can underestimate the true scale of the problem. Having interviewed more than 2,000 hate crime victims, Chakraborti comes up with three things about the causes of the threats.

First, social media and emails have made sending threatening messages extremely easy, instant and low cost practice. Internet communication “gives the perpetrators this cloak of anonymity to be violators. It also gives them a sense of invincibility. “

His second explanation is the modern culture of responsibilities and the polarizing cultural wars that take place in all media, which he sees as “an extension of this kind of binary, established, distorted world.” “The blame is everywhere, in every context, and we can hold ordinary people accountable now.”

Third, he believes that hate speech has become so commonplace that most death-threatening people underestimate their power. There seems to be little consequence for those who use aggressive language, whether it is the Daily Mail calling judges “enemies of the people” or a US President describing Mexican immigrants as “rapists” in general.

As a result, the perpetrators do not “necessarily understand the seriousness of what they are doing.”

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