Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

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Māori statistics of online Hate Speech

This is a summary of Māori statistics extracted from the 2019 Net Safe Hate Speech Report “Measuring trends in online hate speech victimisation and exposure, and attitudes in New Zealand.”

The report explores adult New Zealanders’ personal experiences of, and exposure to, online hate speech. It was as a direct result to the March 15 2019 terrorist attack against the Al-Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch which killed 51 people and injured 49, so me seriously. The report compares data from their 2018 report which I also summarised here.

  1. Footnote 8 on page 4 identifies Christian Maori as one of New Zealand’s largest religious groups. It is not clear what is intended here as there is no such religious group. Māori are Christians and followers of other religious groups. Māori religion contradicts Christianity, hence the statement that Māori Christians is a major religious group is offensive and contradictory.
  2. Hate speech against Māori has increased by (1%), Pacific by (3%) and other ethnicities by (8%) since the terrorist attack. Asians had a decrease of (5%).
  3. Exposure to online hate among Pacific and Maori increased: Māori (10%) and Pacific (5%).
  4. Pacific, Asian and Maori rated race and ethnicity online hate speech higher than for religious hate speech.
  5. The first statement listed in the question was “I think hateful online content is growing in New Zealand and around the world”. The highest level of agreement with the statement was reported by Pacific participants (79%), Maori respondents (75%).

Despite the horrific events and the media claiming that New Zealand is not a racist country. Online Hate Speech against Māori and other minorities increased.

DISCLAIMER: This post is the personal opinion of Dr Karaitiana Taiuru and is not reflective of the opinions of any organisation that Dr Karaitiana Taiuru is a member of or associates with, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

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