Racist hate speech on social media doubled in Costa Rica in the past year, the United Nations office in the Central American country reported on Monday. Expressions of racism increased by 102%, while hate speech against women rose by 67%, and xenophobic comments by 65%, according to a UN report analyzing the period from June 2023 to May 2024.
“We cannot allow women, Afro-descendants, LGBTIQ+ people, persons with disabilities, migrants, refugees, or people simply because of their place of birth or religion to continue being affected by hate and discrimination,” said Allegra Baiocchi, UN coordinator in Costa Rica, when presenting the data.
Nearly 1.7 million messages and conversations linked to hate speech and discrimination were detected in Costa Rica during the analyzed period, compared to 1.5 million in the previous year, the study highlighted. Two out of three emitters of these hate speeches are men, the report adds.
Despite the number of individuals spreading this type of discourse decreasing by 64% compared to the previous year, “there is a more aggressive behavior observed among those who do issue these discourses,” commented the UN. The main social network used by these emitters is X (formerly Twitter), which accounts for 66% of the hate messages collected in the report.
The study, the fourth of its kind, has shown a sustained increase in hate speech in Costa Rica through social media, from 550,000 recorded in 2021 to 1.7 million. While the UN acknowledged the existence of a governmental strategy in Costa Rica to combat this phenomenon, it called for “urgent attention to the accelerated growth it has experienced.”
