ABSTRACT
Is enclave deliberation leading to more hate speech? Can deliberation norms tackle hate speech or do they lead to “civilized” forms of group libel? None of these questions can be answered without first identifying how hate speech manifests in its various forms. Hate speech disparages an individual or group on grounds such as race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or sexual orientation. Studies on online harassment have often analysed hate speech as a matter of incivility. However, group derogatory comments are not the commonest form of online incivility, and nor is hate speech restricted to comments. Based on speech act theory and on the theory of digital objects, this chapter conducts an integrative literature review in order to provide a taxonomy of hate speech in digital conversations, allowing an identification of how hate speech manifests in digital conversations, how these forms can be assessed empirically, and what differentiated effects they have on online deliberation.
