It doesn’t have to be hate speech to harm

The statement emphasizes that while countering hate speech is essential, addressing 'micro-aggressions'—such as misogyny and racism—is equally critical because their cumulative effect can silence voices and erode democratic institutions. It highlights the limitations of current online platform moderation and promotes WACC's social media monitoring tool to combat online misogyny.

• Hate speech disseminated through communication technologies is a primary method for spreading divisive ideologies globally and can lead to conflicts, tensions, and wide-scale human rights violations.
• Current online platform methods for removing hate speech, which rely on community reporting, platform policies, and automated keyword/image blocking, often fail to detect 'micro-aggressions'.
• Online abuse and disinformation targeting women in politics, as documented in the "Monetizing Misogyny" report, serve as an early warning system for the erosion of democratic principles and institutions.
• The cumulative effect of online aggressions that are dismissed as mere comments can be more harmful than individual instances, as they create a climate that may devolve into hate and actual violence.
• WACC has created a social media monitoring tool based on the Global Media Monitoring Project methodology to help users identify online misogyny and gather evidence for education and advocacy.

APA

Rowley, S. (2024). It doesn’t have to be hate speech to harm. World Association for Christian Communication. https://waccglobal.org/it-doesnt-have-to-be-hate-speech-to-harm/

Chicago

Rowley, Saskia. It doesn’t have to be hate speech to harm. World Association for Christian Communication, 2024. https://waccglobal.org/it-doesnt-have-to-be-hate-speech-to-harm/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Rowley |first1=Saskia |title=It doesn’t have to be hate speech to harm |publisher=World Association for Christian Communication |date=17 June 2024 |url=https://waccglobal.org/it-doesnt-have-to-be-hate-speech-to-harm/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{rowley2024doesnt, author = {Rowley, Saskia}, title = {{It doesn’t have to be hate speech to harm}}, publisher = {World Association for Christian Communication}, year = {2024}, month = jun, url = {https://waccglobal.org/it-doesnt-have-to-be-hate-speech-to-harm/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }