Cyber hate speech detection and analysis: an evidence-based forensic linguistics approach

• Type: Chapter or Part of a Book
• Date: 2024

Authors

Sousa-Silva, Rui (Author) FLUP

Book

Title: Handbook on cyber hate: the modern cyber evil

Pages: 149-171

ISBN: 978-3-031-51247-6 (hbk); 978-3-031-51250-6 (pbk)

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-51248-3

Publisher: Springer Cham

Indexing

Scopus

Other information

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-51248-3_8

Abstract (EN): Hate speech, which has been researched widely and transdisciplinarily, has attracted little attention in the field of linguistics, although it is mostly expressed linguistically. This research gap is even more noticeable in cases of cyber hate speech, where cybercriminal offences take linguistic form, thus requiring specific deterrence measures. This chapter addresses cyber hate speech detection and analysis from a forensic linguistics perspective. It builds on a precise definition of cyber hate speech to address the two main challenges faced by law enforcement: anonymity and (linguistic) interpretation of cyber hate communications. The chapter demonstrates: how the offender’s anonymity can be broken via forensic authorship analysis methods and techniques to disclose the true identity of the suspect, and how the intended meaning of the alleged cyber hate speech utterance can be established through an analysis of disputed meanings. It concludes with a discussion of the relevance of the forensic linguistic analysis for making evidence-based legal decisions.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific