Xenophobia leads reports of hate crimes on the internet in 2022

The survey carried out by Safernet was released this Monday (7). Among hate speech crimes, the one that grew the most was xenophobia – which is intolerance or violence against foreigners or certain people.

A xenophobia there was an increase of 874% between 2021 and 2022, with 10.686 complaints reported. In 2021, there were 1.097 reports of xenophobia on the internet.

A religious intolerance appears in second place, with growth of 456% in the period.

Next comes the misogyny - oppression of women – with growth of 251% between 2021 and 2022.

Hate crimes and election year

Other crimes related to hate speech on the internet, which also include condoning and inciting crimes against life, LGBTPhobia and racism, also grew.

The only exception was neo-Nazism, which fell 81,6% in 2022 compared to the previous year. This drop, however, does not mean that crime is falling in the country.

 “The reduction means that much of the activity of neo-Nazi cells in Brazil has migrated from the open web to more closed environments, such as messaging applications and online forums. deep web“, explained Thiago Tavares, CEO of Safernet, in a note.

In the survey, the organization notes that the reporting hate crimes on the internet tend to show greater growth in election years in Brazil. 

In the years following elections, they tend to show a slight improvement, but grow again in election years.

In 2020, for example, when there were municipal elections, almost 53 thousand reports of hate speech crimes were sent on the internet, which represented an increase of 105% compared to 2019. In 2021, a year without elections in the country, the number fell to 44 thousand complaints, growing again in 2022, when the mark of 74 thousand complaints was reached.

The National Cyber ​​Crime Reporting Center receives denunciations which are analyzed, checked and then forwarded to the competent authorities for a police investigation to begin.

Sexual exploitation

Last year, complaints related to the storage, dissemination and production of images of child sexual abuse and exploitation exceeded the 100 mark for the second year in a row, which had not occurred since 2011.

In 2022 alone, 111.929 complaints related to this type of crime were sent, an increase of 9,9% compared to 2021.

The historic record received by Safernet's National Reporting Center related to child sexual abuse and exploitation on the internet occurred in 2008, when 289.707 reports were made.

From 2021 to 2022, Safernet also recorded a 266% increase in reports related to human trafficking. In 2022, 1.194 reports of this crime were reported, compared to 326 in 2021. There was also a 37% increase in reports of crimes related to animal abuse.

(Source: Agência Brasil)

See also:

What is femicide?

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Religious violence and elections in Brazil: how did we end up here?

Episodes of religious violence have increased in Brazil, as shown in the first mapping of religious racism in the country, “Respeite meu Terreiro”, organized by the National Network of Afro-Brazilian Religions and Health (Renafro). Almost 99% of religious leaders from 53 regional centers across Brazil said they had already suffered some type of offense. At the same time, religious debates have been central to this year's elections. Why is it so difficult to separate faith and politics in Brazil? O Curto talked about the topic with José Sepulveda, coordinator of the Observatory of Secularism in Education at the Fluminense Federal University.

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