Maltese most likely Europeans to encounter hate speech online

Maltese internet users have identified "hate speech" as the sort of illegal content they are most likely to encounter while surfing online.

According to a Eurobarometer survey held in 28 EU member states, the Maltese were the most likely of all member states to complain about encountering hate speech on the web.

The survey also shows that the Maltese are the keenest in Europe to defend online freedom of expression

Hate speech is defined in EU law as the public incitement to violence or hatred directed to groups or individuals on the basis of certain characteristics, “including race, colour, religion, descent and national or ethnic origin”.

But those answering the survey were not given a definition of hate speech and therefore the replies could be conditioned by preconceptions on what constitutes hate speech in each country.

Compared to the EU average of 29% of those who said they encounter hate speech online, this rose to 55% in Malta. Next came the Czech Republic (53%), Bulgaria (52%) and Poland (50%) as the most likely to encounter hate speech. Estonia (15%), Italy (17%) and Lithuania (19%) were the least likely.

9% of Maltese also reported encountering child sexual abuse online and 12% claim to have encountered terrorist content compared to 6% of respondents in all EU-28 countries. 37% of Maltese encounter pirated material while 40% encounter fake or counterfeit goods online.

However, 73% of Maltese respondents said they do not take any action when encountering illegal content online, compared to 59% of Europeans who do take action.  

11% of Maltese – compared to 21% of Europeans – said they reported such abuse directly to the service provider.

Interestingly, 7% of Maltese respondents reported that content they had posted online was removed or blocked. Most of these cases involved sharing pirated content.

The survey also shows Malta having the highest rate of daily use of social media. While 63% use the social media on a daily basis (19 points higher than EU average), 14% use it a few times a week.

41% of the Maltese are also likely to watch videos, live streams or listen to music on a daily basis, 10 percentage points more than the EU average.