Racialized Canadians 3 times more likely to experience online hate, survey says

Noor Fadelwas 18 years old in 2017 when she was hit in the face on the SkyTrain in Vancouver by a man who yelled that he was going to kill her and all Muslims.

Fadelposted about the assault on her social media page, and she saidwhat followed was as traumatizing asthe physical attack, if not more so.

Her post went viral,prompting atorrent of hateful and threateningcomments. Some were sexist;some were Islamophobic;some came frompeople telling her to go back to her own country.

"Honestly the effect that those comments hadon me, even though it's been three years, it's always going to be there," she said in a video.

The video is part of a social media campaign called #BlockHate, launched by YWCACanada and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) on Sunday to bring the problem of online hate to light and call on the federal government to take action to combat it.

The release of the campaign coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

"The impact of online hate and hatred and racism is very deep," said Mohammed Hashim,executive director of the CRRF.

Racialized Canadians 3x more likely to be targeted: survey

The CRRF recentlyconducted a studythat found racialized Canadians are three times more likely to be targeted by online hate.

"It made perfect sense," Hashim said of the findings. "Our population is changing, a lot more diverse voices are coming forward, and sometimes they're saying things that are uncomfortable."

He said racist people try to silence these voices by attacking them online, withwomen of colour frequently on the receiving end.The survey also said hateful comments and content are faced or experienced "far more often" by younger Canadians those between the ages of 18 and 29.

"This campaign really is to ensure that the people who are most impacted by hate are at the centre of the conversation," Hashim said.

Social media campaign #BlockHate aims to bring online hate to light

4 years ago

Duration 2:17

A new social media campaign called #BlockHate launched Sunday aims to bring awareness to the pervasive problem of online hate, calling for accountability from tech companies and the federal government to do more to stop it. This comes after the Canadian Race Relations Foundation recently conducted a study that found racialized Canadians are three times more likely to be targeted by online hate. Farrah Merali has the story.

The study found that the incidence of experienced or witnessed online racism, sexism, incitements of violence or homophobic comments is widespread. Almost half of Canadians reported either experiencing or seeing racist comments or content online.

Maya Roy, chief executive officer of YWCA Canada, one of Canada's leading women's organizations, said the statistics are likely higher for racialized people.

"It's simply not safe for a Black-identifyingor Indigenous person to report a hate crime to the police when they are being racially profiled," she said.

"We know that for many Canadiansspeaking up simply isn't an option."

Digital hatean extension of hate in real life: YWCA

For Roy, these incidences of online hateare increasing. She said YWCA Canadawas Zoom-bombedby white supremacists at the start of the pandemic.

"Unfortunately, things have only escalated from there," she said. "But we could also see that digital hate, unfortunately, is an extension of hate that's happening in real life."

Hashimpointed to the attackers in theQuebec City and Christchurch mosque shootings, the Pittsburgh synagogue shootingand the Toronto van attack.

"All of those people were radicalized online. The inspirations people find online that are hateful sometimes turn into very violent consequences."

The campaign's launch comes just days after the Atlanta spa shootings, where eight women six of whom were Asian were gunned down by a white man.

Justin Kong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council, said anti-Asian hate is nothing new in Canada, but that the pandemic has intensified it. Roy called the pandemic a "perfect storm" for anti-Asian racism.

"It stems from the racist assumption that Chinese and Asian people are responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. That's not true, and it's racist to have those beliefs," Kong said.

"We have a very serious problem around anti-Asian racism here in Canada. We need to address it from a policy level, from a personal level and from a community level."

Callfor regulation from federal government, tech companies

The #BlockHate campaignis pushing for social media platforms, which they say are the largest purveyors of hate,to be held accountable for the content on them.

"The reality is that algorithms are driving this content. People are almost always one click away from the most hateful content," Hashim said.

Roy agreed, saying tech companies must comply with international human rights frameworks and the laws of the countries in which they operate and from which they benefit.

"I think regulation and legal compliance is fundamentally what's important," she said.

Hashim said this is one step in the process to curtail online hate, because "we can't just legislate hate out of existence."

Inevitably, he said, it's up to everyone individuals, tech companies and the federal government to help curb the hate.

In January,the federalgovernment said it is planning to introduce pieces of legislation related to tech giants and "online harms" this year.

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said he will table legislationto create a new government regulator with the power to monitor social media platforms and levy fines on social media companies that allow things like hate speech to remain on their platforms.

"Ensuring that the environment of the online space is protectedisnot just about curtailing the most hateful voices from being heard, but it's to ensure that real world violence does not follow," Hashim said.

"Real people are being hurt. Real people are being impacted. And their voices need to be heard in this conversation.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.