Perceptions and behaviors of university students in the face of online hate speech: a comparative analysis between Spain and Italy/Percepciones y comportamientos de estudiantes universitarios frente al discurso de odio en linea: un analisis comparativo entre Espana e Italia

Hate speech is evidence that social networks do not always favor modern democracies; there are more and more issues related to their misuse, putting Western values at stake. This phenomenon has increased with the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this paper is to investigate in Spanish and Italian university students their perceptions of hate speech such as sexting, grooming, cyberbullying, to analyze their online behaviors as victims and aggressors and to explore the forms of hatred towards people who have played a relevant role in the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a quantitative-descriptive methodology, 418 university students from both countries participated, recruited through non-probabilistic sampling. The results obtained show that in both countries there is an increase in the perception of hatred during COVID-19. In this context, the most increased forms of violence are sexting, gender violence and cyberbullying; among the most affected categories are healthcare workers, supermarket workers, and people with disabilities. Therefore, the results highlight the need to address hate speech with an educational approach oriented towards both critical and responsible media literacy as well as respect for diversity, interculturality, and emotional education. Los discursos de odio son una evidencia de que las redes sociales no siempre favorecen las democracias modernas; cada vez hay mas problematicas relacionadas con un mal uso de estas, poniendo en juego los valores occidentales. Este fenomeno ha aumentado con la pandemia del COVID-19. El objetivo de este articulo es investigar con estudiantes universitarios de Espana e Italia las percepciones que tienen sobre los discursos de odio tales como sexteo, < >, ciberacoso, analizar sus comportamientos en linea como victimas y agresores, y explorar las formas de odio hacia personas que han tenido un papel relevante en la pandemia del COVID-19. Mediante el uso de una metodologia cuantitativa-descriptiva, participaron 418 estudiantes universitarios de ambos paises, reclutados con muestreo no probabilistico. Los resultados obtenidos evidencian que en ambos paises hay un aumento de la percepcion del odio durante el COVID-19. En este sentido, las formas de violencia mas incrementadas son: sexteo, violencia de genero y ciberacoso; entre las categorias mas afectadas se encuentran los trabajadores del sector sanitario, de supermercados y las personas con discapacidad. Los resultados ponen de relieve la necesidad de tratar el discur