During the second quarter of 2025, Facebook removed three million pieces of hate speech content, down from 3.4 million in the previous quarter. Between April and June 2021, the social network removed a record number of over 31 million pieces of hate speech. Bullying and harassment content is also present on Facebook.

In the second quarter of 2025, Instagram took action on 5.4 million pieces of hate speech content on the platform, down from 6.1 million such content actions in the preceding quarter. In Q3 2023, Facebook removed 9.6 million pieces of hate speech.

In the third quarter of 2023, hate speech content on Meta's Facebook had a prevalence rate of 0.02 percent. For every 10,000 content views on the social media platform, about two pieces of content would contain hate speech. Overall, the prevalence of what Facebook considers to be hate speech has remained steady since the first quarter of 2022.

As of 2020, ** percent of Finns said that they had seen hateful messages attacking a person or group on social media. Based on survey results, young people had witnessed hate speech on social media more often than older age groups in Finland. During the survey period, ** percent of ** to 24-year-olds and ** percent of ** to 34-year-olds had seen hate speech on social media in the last three months.

In the second quarter of 2024, the number of restored content items that were originally actioned for hate speech on Facebook worldwide amounted to 157,000, up from 148,000 of such restored items in the preceding quarter.

According to a study conducted in August 2023, 86 percent of posts on X (formerly Twitter) that were reported for containing hate speech were still hosted by the platform. Additionally, 90 percent of X accounts that were publishing hate speech posts were still active.

In 2024, over ********* of respondents in Poland reported personally experiencing online hate speech. The issue was most prevalent among men and young people aged *****, with nearly ** percent of individuals in each group having encountered it.

In the period studied, *** out of 10 children in Poland have experienced online hate speech in the last year.

In 2023, the Roma people were the most common target of offensive and hate speech posts on Facebook. On X/Twitter, humanitarian activities triggered the largest share of offensive content, followed by the Romani people. Immigration generated many negative comments and posts on both social medias. According to the source, the largest share of offensive and discriminatory content was found on X/Twitter, ** percent, compared to ** percent on Facebook.

******* percent of Poles experienced hate speech online in 2021, with men and 18- to 24-year-olds most likely to be affected.

In Italy, the episodes of public hate speech and incitement to hatred motivated by racism have been increasing in the last years. In the first three months of 2020, ***** cases were recorded, while in the previous year, there were ** episodes. Hate speech describes every kind of writing, talking, or behavior which encourage violence towards a person or group on the basis of their identity or characteristics, such as race, religion, or sexual orientation. The data only report the cases collected by source. Thus, the actual cases of racial hate speech and incitement to hatred might be much higher.

Hate speech as political propaganda

Hate speech and incitement to ethnic or racial hatred represent a major issue in Italy. In politics, for instance, this phenomenon is quite widespread. One of the largest political parties in the country, Lega, has been making a significant number of statements based on xenophobia and incitement to hatred. Its secretary, Matteo Salvini, has been focusing a part of its campaign on anti-migration positions, cultivating feelings of hate in the country. During his two years as Minister of the Interior, he declared, among others, that Italian ports were closed to ships carrying rescued migrants.

Against all forms of racial hate

In October 2020, an Extraordinary Commission was founded in Italy to combat racism, anti-Semitism, incitement to hatred, violence, and all forms of racial hate. The decision passed in the Parliament with *** votes in favor, ** abstainers, and no vote against. The right-wing parties Lega, Forza Italia, and Fratelli d'Italia decided to abstain. The Commission was proposed by the Senator Liliana Segre, a Holocaust survivor. Indeed, the commission is also called "Segre Commission".

In 2021, nearly four in ** Poles said the main reason for making hateful comments online is a lack of satisfaction with life. In addition, *** in ***** respondents believed that trolls and bots issued nasty comments online for money. The desire to attract attention and gain publicity was also one of the main reasons for hate speech on the Internet.

According to a survey conducted in 2024, ** percent of Americans agreed that people in the United States should be allowed to express speech that supports Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state in public, even if it might offend others. In comparison, only ** percent of Americans said that people should be allowed to express speech that supports Palestinians having their own state in public. However, a much smaller share of Americans were found to believe that calling for violence against Jews or Muslims should be allowed in public, at ** percent and ** percent respectively.

In 2024, over ** percent of respondents agreed that it is necessary to fight hate speech online, but not at the expense of the freedom of speech. Similar values were observed in 2019.

Based on a survey conducted from October to December 2019, 42 percent of all college students in the United States reported that they believed hate speech was a somewhat serious problem on social media. In comparison, 57 percent of HBCU students reported that it was a very serious problem.

In the 2023/24 reporting year there were 140,561 hate crime incidents reported by the police in England and Wales compared with 147,645 in the previous year.

An online survey conducted in Canada in 2021 found that the vast majority of respondents, almost 70 percent, felt social media providers should monitor and remove content they considered to be hate speech. Overall, around a fifth of respondents disagreed that social media providers should be responsible for the removal of hate speech. In addition, 12 percent of those asked stated that they did not know.

During the period studied, the greatest amount of online hate speech experienced by children in Poland was about their *******************.

Based on a survey conducted between October and December 2019, 45 percent of female college students in the United States felt that hate speech was a very serious problem on social media. In comparison, only 25 percent of male U.S. college students thought the same.

In a 2019 survey about the perceived reasons for receiving hate speech online in New Zealand, ** percent of respondents said they believed they received hate speech due to their religion. The same share of respondents said they thought it could be due to their political views.