Last year, more than 74,000 complaints of crimes involving hate speech on the internet were forwarded to Safernet’s National Cyber Crime Reporting Center, an organization that defends human rights in a virtual environment. This was the largest number of reports of hate speech crimes in a virtual environment ever received by the organization since 2017 and represented an increase of 67.7% compared to 2021. The survey was released today (7) by Safernet. Among hate speech crimes, the one that grew the most was xenophobia, which is prejudice, intolerance or violence against foreigners or certain people. Xenophobia increased by 874% between 2021 and 2022, with 10,686 complaints reported. In 2021, there were 1,097 reports of xenophobia on the internet. Religious intolerance appears in second position, with a growth of 456% in the period, followed by misogyny or oppression of women, which had an increase of 251% between 2021 and 2022. In addition to xenophobia, religious intolerance and misogyny, all the others crimes related to hate speech on the internet (which also include apology and incitement to crimes against life, LGBTphobia and racism) also grew. The only exception was neo-Nazism, which dropped 81.6% in 2022 compared to the previous year. This drop, however, does not mean that crime has been 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 apps and forums on the deep web”, explained Thiago Tavares, CEO of Safernet, in a note. In a survey, the organization notes that reports of 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 53,000 complaints of hate speech crimes were submitted on the internet, which represented an increase of 105% compared to 2019. In 2021, a year without elections in the country, the number dropped to 44 thousand complaints, growing again in 2022, when the mark of 74 thousand complaints was reached. The scenario has been constantly observed since 2017. allegations of hate speech and also mistreatment of animals, human trafficking and child sexual abuse and exploitation. The complaints received are analyzed, checked and then forwarded to the competent authorities so that a police investigation can be initiated. Complaints Last year, complaints related to the storage, dissemination and production of images of child sexual abuse and exploitation surpassed the 100,000 mark for the second consecutive year, which had not occurred since 2011. In 2022 alone, 111,929 related complaints were sent to this type of crime, 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 complaints 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, against 326 in 2021. There was also a 37% increase in reports of crimes related to animal abuse. Help Channel In addition to the Complaints Center, Safernet maintains a Help Channel to assist and answer questions from internet users. According to a survey carried out by the organization and also released today (7), most of the questions sent by Internet users to the Help Center in 2022 were related to problems involving personal data. In this case, 264 calls were made. Then there were doubts related to the exposure of intimate images (with 255 calls), fraud and scams (168 calls). Cyberbullying (139) and mental health in networks (122) completed the list.
Agência Brasil
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