The research of the School of Peacemaking and Media Technology was presented at the 5th annual forum “Internet in Central Asia-2014”.

According to the recent media monitoring report "Cyberhate as a trend of modern media wars”, were demonstrated at the Almaty Forum (Kazakhstan) on April 29-30.

According to the School’s analytical group assessment, the number of hostile attacks has increased on the network almost by one fourth. The research of Kyrgyzstan online media has shown that 56% of articles and posts monitored contain hostile comments and provocative calls.

"Until now, media monitoring for hate speech on the web have been perceived in terms of ethnic stereotypes, xenophobia and racism,” Inga Sikorskaya, Director of School of Peacemaking and Media Technologies, said during the presentation. "Now cyber attacks are the major part of hate speech content against various groups expressed in diverse forms.”

First of all, these are articles by journalists and posts by users, which demonstrate focus on interethnic conflicts and various forms of manifestation of nationalism.

Journalists put emphasis on the ethnic component of the conflict (e.g., by listing the parties of the events), focus readers’ attention on the ethnic background of a criminal or a victim thus contributing to the hostility in the society.

Any conflict situation with the participation of representatives of various ethnic communities (scuffles between youth groups, border conflicts, criminal acts, and other events) provokes the increase in the number of articles and posts containing harsh hate speech against a certain ethnic group.

Provocative articles making fun of religious, public and political figures, national and religious symbols by using metaphors that tarnish human dignity occur frequently on the web. Direct attacks on the culture, history, lifestyle and way of thinking of other peoples have been reported. Sometimesusers turn their virtual hatred into direct violence.

Participants of the internet forum were experts from 4 CA countries, as well as representatives of Ukraine, Lithuania, and Russia, who talked about their vision of opportunities and risks in the global network, voiced their forecasts and solutions, and held master classes for internet activists.