LGTBIphobia in social networks is concentrated on Twitter, against profiles without public relevance and is hardly reported
The studio To the Parrot made by the collective LGBT+ Lambda de Valencia concludes that the social network in which insults against other anonymous people spread more easily is Twitter. The immediacy, anonymity and lack of defense measures for vulnerable groups are the breeding ground for discriminatory messages and incitement to hatred against the group LGTBIQ +according to his x-ray.
The group registers in six months more than half a thousand messages of incitement to hatred of the group LGTBIQ + in your mailbox To the Parrot, while the Prosecution warns of the invisibility of crimes. According to the senior prosecutor Teresa gisbert, only between 3% and 6% of hate crimes committed in the Valencian territory are reported, a figure that he estimates is far from the real one.
Lambda emphasizes that they are only understood as content of a discriminatory nature or hate crime by LGBTophobia those publications (images or comments) «that directly or indirectly encourage, promote or incite hatred, hostility, discrimination and/or violence against the LGTB+ group due to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity«.
sense of impunity
The insult against an anonymous person, without public relevance, is the most common attack on social networks, 55% of the 511 messages analyzed throughout 2021. Next, ridicule adds up to 25% of the messages analyzed, followed by false information (18%), threats (1,8%) and the dissemination of private information (0,2%), according to the study.
Public people receive 25% of the messages, while the remaining 75% go to anonymous people. The group highlights that only 2% of verbal aggressions "have had an impact or social complaint as a response", a figure that indicates the difficulties in punishing the profiles that utter them. The feeling of impunity, they say, spreads hate messages.
To the Parrot has found more messages with hate speech by LGTBphobia en Twitter (85%). They are far away Facebook (9,5%) and Instagram (5,5%).
These conclusions have not surprised the group Lambda because, according to data from the FELGTB, 24% of assaults by LGTBphobia It already happens on networks. In 2019, 204 cases were registered at the state level as criminal incidents committed by social networks, with sexual orientation and gender identity being some of the areas with the highest incidence, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.
Conviction after seven years of waiting
Last week, after seven years of waiting for trial, one of those accused of threaten in Twitter to the activist LGTBI Valencian Fran pardo, was sentenced to nine months in prison for a crime of threats (article 169.2) with the aggravating circumstance of ideological motivation for sexual orientation. Serge SM, who has acknowledged the facts, has apologized to the victim and must pay the costs of the procedure, in addition to compensating him with one thousand euros. Despite the fact that a conviction has been achieved in this case, it is still very difficult to report harassment on networks.
