Episode #02: Disability is no laughing matter

We know online harassment is a massive and multifaceted problem. We hear a lot about hate speech targeting race, gender, and religion, and we’re increasingly aware of the damage caused by cyberbullying.

But there’s a crucial aspect of online abuse that often gets overlooked: the way disability is weaponized in online attacks, especially within the context of political discourse.

This episode dives into this disturbing trend, exploring how political hate speech intersects with ableism (i.e., discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities) particularly when fuelled by extremist far-right political views. This episode talks about a research that has analysed 160 publicly available YouTube comments that mock and belittle the current Brazilian president’s disability (he lost a finger in his youth).

By examining this paper, we aim to understand how this specific type of online abuse works, what kind of language is used, and ultimately, the real-world harm it causes to both the individual targeted and the broader societal perception of disability.

For additional information, read the full article available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08263663.2023.2271306