2 in 3 People Often Encounter Hate Speech Online

Two in three people said that they had encountered hate speech often, in response to an Ipsos survey conducted between August 2022 and September 2023. A total of 8,000 individuals were surveyed across 16 countries, which were selected due to a national election being scheduled to take place there in 2024.

Out of the nations polled, hate speech was most widely encountered in India (85 percent said they had often encountered it), Bangladesh (84 percent) and South Africa (79 percent). In the United States, 18 percent of respondents said they had seen hate speech online very often and 37 percent had encountered it fairly often (55 percent in total). Online hate speech or incitement to violence here includes social networks, the "comments" section of articles or online instant messaging and can target individuals or groups of people (ethnic, racial or religious minorities, LGBT+ people, people with disabilities, etc).

As this chart shows, hate speech and/or disinformation is perceived to be particularly prolific on Facebook and TikTok. Around six in ten respondents across the 16 countries said that they thought such content was most widespread on Facebook, while 30 percent said the same for TikTok. At the time the survey was fielded, 18 percent of respondents selected X/Twitter. Respondents could select up to two answers for this question.

Ipsos asked respondents about their preferred solutions to the problem of disinformation and online hate speech. Nine in ten respondents on a country average agreed that governments and regulators should be able to require social media platforms to put in place trust and safety measures during election campaigns to protect the integrity of elections. Nine in ten thought that social media platforms should take an active role in combating disinformation and “fake news” during election campaigns. Meanwhile 75 percent of respondents thought that international organizations such as the United Nations should play a major role in safeguarding measures.