Rachel Keighley – Research Associate and Vice-Chair of the British Society of Criminology Hate Crime Network
To understand why activist research is so important, I thought I should share what motivated me to become an activist researcher in the first place. In 2016 I was 22 years old and studying for my Criminology Masters at Durham University. A group of young lads in a car shouted out of their window at my girlfriend and I who were holding hands walking down the street. To ensure we got the point, they passed by us again, shouting profanities, slurs and threats. I was shocked by the outright hostility towards my sexuality, as fears of being targeted for being gay became my reality.
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From this experience I entered the world of academic research as a form of activism. Trying to better understand the experiences and injustices many have experienced due to their sexuality; my research has led me to investigate hate that is occurring online. LGBTQ+ individuals face hate and discrimination every day because of who they are both on and offline. However, people are not just marginalised for their gender and sexuality: people are targeted because of their faith, race, disability, and age among other characteristics. My academic journey research hate crime has undoubtedly shaped my activism, as I come to view the important role academics must play in social change.
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Free speech or hate speech?
Officially, we know very little about online hate. The UK Home Office released experimental statistics in 2017/18, which have not been repeated since in their yearly Hate Crime Reports due to a lack of data. However, within my own research, 175 LGBTQ+ young people (aged 13-25) were surveyed about their experiences of online hate targeting their sexuality. My research identified that 63% (n=111) reported having experienced LGB+ online hate and 90% (n=154) reported having observed LGB+ online hate targeting a peer. Given there is no official definition of online hate, there is a distinct lack of understanding as to what hate looks like online. Consequently, my research into LGB+ online hate reveals the possibility that many victims of online hate just do not recognise it as a crime and therefore do not report it. Meanwhile, society and social media platforms that play host to online hate are not taking enough responsibility to police the matter themselves, arguing that people have a right to express their opinions online. Social media sites have come under a lot of scrutiny for their mishandling of online activity, favouring a person’s right to free speech over the potential damage words can cause. A recent example of this is JK Rowling’s twitter feed, where she continually espouses a rhetoric that is seen by many as both transphobic and hurtful.
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Debates around freedom of speech can be seen to have shaped how we tackle online hate especially incidents of verbal abuse. For example, here in the UK, priority is still given to freedom of expression online, as survivors of hate online are asked to self-regulate the content they see, thus embedding so called ‘legal but harmful’ content as below the threshold to be ‘hateful’ enough to proactively remove or condemn. Thus, for many survivors of hate online, we are in danger of justifying discriminatory views and perhaps even encouraging their occurrence.
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Online Safety Bill: the role of policy
The UK’s response to online hate is fraught with inconsistencies. In March 2022 the UK Government published their latest draft of the Online Safety Bill, setting out some comprehensive legislative measures, underpinned by an understanding that the criminal law applies to online activity in the same way as to offline activity. The Bill highlights how misuse of the internet can cause long term harms to users. However, most recent drafts of the regulation have argued that hate speech and other so called ‘legal but harmful’ content, falls outside the scope of the Bill, with responsibility falling on users to self-regulate their own content and social media platforms to police themselves.
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My research questioned the role of policy in policing the online world, calling for a need to address how current criminal justice models fail to appropriately engage with the nature and harms of LGB+ online hate. Thus, individuals can perpetrate hate online with near impunity. A harms-based approach to legislative provisions that recognises the harms of online hate but also recognises how the social structures of society both underpin and enable discrimination based on identity is required. Consequently, the focus ought to be on protecting marginalised communities and breaking down heterosexist structures rather than upholding rights to free speech that reinforces and justifies prejudiced attitudes (e.g. see Belknap’s work). A shift towards a more cohesive, relative understanding of online hate, alongside a rejection of the assumption that what occurs online is neither harmful, nor serious in nature, would begin to mend the mistrust between the LGBTQ+ community, authorities and wider society.
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Research as activism
My motivation for researching LGB+ hate is as much about protecting the victims as it is about trying to understand what motivates identity related prejudice. Maybe there is not a rational answer, but it is an important question to ask if we want to target perpetrators of hate and challenge their views in pursuance of a more equal society. It is important not to focus on LGB+ hate as an isolated phenomenon but view it within a wider system of oppression and prejudice, designed to maintain a social hierarchy in which the privileged remain on top.
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Moreover, advocacy is becoming a powerful tool in the activists’ arsenal through encouraging conversations around sexuality and gender. In doing so, the norm is challenged as we enter an era in which sexuality and gender are not assumed to be binary or fixed. Standing together against hate in solidarity with other marginalised communities is something we should all be doing as we bring issues of equality to the table.
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Researchers Teela Sanders, Kathryn McGarry and Paul Ryan in their book Sex Work, Labour and Relations argued that social science research can no longer afford to be merely tokenistic but works to affect changes whilst also inspiring others to work through inequal social processes, engage with socio-political issues and to not be deterred from working on challenging subjects or in challenging environments. Research can inspire change on many different platforms, from the ways we engage research populations, research that is underpinned by diversity, equity and inclusion values, to the ways we shape social justice and inspire and align with marginalised communities. It is often these changes that motivate us to engage in research, but it is our personal stories that shape the narrative to research any given topic.
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Researching LGBTQ+ online hate is emotionally difficult. As a gay woman with personal experience of both online and offline hate, I know the harms caused by individuals who target my identity. There is a tone of judgement within the work I do, such that within this case study the criminal justice system, structure of society, criminological knowledge and previous understandings of hate are judged against a particular standard set by activist research. For queer criminology, the standard includes addressing our preconceptions regarding hate, sexuality and identity. Also, to represent LGBTQ+ voices in society, by providing a comprehensive understanding surrounding their lives and experiences of LGB+ online hate and its harms. My research seeks to question current societal attitudes towards difference, whilst critiquing current legislation and responses to LGB+ online hate. Thus, I question the very assumptions to knowledge that society is based upon, pushing these boundaries outwards to create a more inclusive society that understands the nuances of identity, difference and our approach to preventing hate.
Dr Rachel Keighley is a Research Associate in the School of Criminology, University of Leicester. She specialises in the subject of online hate, in particular against a person’s sexuality. Currently, Rachel is working on an AHRC funded project looking at the role of Adult Service Websites in preventing Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.
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