An Examination of Online Hate and Harassment Targeting Immigrants

In the modern digital era, online harassment, hate, and abuse have emerged as significant challenges affecting people across the globe. Immigrants, in particular, encounter unique cyber threats due to cultural differences, language barriers, limited social networks, and unfamiliarity with local laws and cyber regulations. This research focuses on examining the issue of online hate and harassment targeting immigrants within online communities. Through a comprehensive online survey involving 62 immigrants in Canada, we investigated their experiences in three key areas: Social Media Usage, Hate and Harassment Experiences, and Awareness. The findings indicate that immigrants have a high level of social media engagement (around 97%), but they also face a higher incidence of online abuse compared to global and US-only samples. Approximately 58% of the participants said they experienced online abuse, which included offensive name-calling (35%), stalking (6%), and sexual harassment (19%). Despite their active online presence, a significant portion of participants (72%) demonstrated a lack of familiarity with the specific Canadian laws pertaining to online harassment, and 10% had no knowledge of these laws at all. In this study we also examine recent platform solutions and navigates the challenges of balancing privacy, accountability, moderation, and free speech in protecting users in cyber spaces.