Hate speech against Hindus on social media has risen sharply: Report

New Delhi, July 14: A recent report by a US university corroborates what has often been discussed and feared in recent times. The report, published by the Rutgers University, says that hate speech directed towards the Hindu community has increased significantly across the social media.

Decoding the patterns which have come to the foray in the spread of hate against the community, the report claims that social media platforms have witnessed a sharp rise in hate speech directed towards the Hindu community.

The report is titled 'Anti-Hindu Disinformation: A Case Study of Hinduphobia on Social Media'.

Dr Joel Finkelstein, associated with the Rutgers University told Times Now that the analysis shows that not all anti-Hindus are from Pakistan.

"We noticed that there are state sponsored information operators from Iran and other countries," he said.

In July the signal on the Hinduphobic code words and memes reached record highs that could inflame a spill out to real world violence, especially in light of escalating religious tensions in India and the recent beheading of an Indian shopkeeper. Social media platforms largely are unaware of the code words, key images, and structured nature of this hatred even as it is surging, a press release by the University read.

"There is, unfortunately, nothing new to the bigotry and violence faced by the Hindu population," said John J. Farmer Jr., director of both the Miller Center and the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "What is new is the social media context in which hate messages are being shared. Our prior work has shown a correlation between the intensity of hate messaging over social media and the eruption of real-world acts of violence."

"Our hope is that the report serves as a timely warning before the hate messaging leads to real-world violence," said Denver Riggleman, former U.S. congressman and Miller Center Research fellow and visiting scholar, the release also noted.

The analysis follows a series of reports that NCRI and Rutgers Centers have released since 2020 that examine the use of conspiracy theories and social media networks to instigate widespread, real-world violence.

The NC Lab is a cyber-social threat identification and forecasting center developed through a partnership between the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), the Rutgers Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience and the Rutgers Center for Critical Intelligence Studies.