Political and social hate speech: differences on emotional and rhetorical features on TikTok messages

Hate and weaponized speech, addressed to vilify and demonize political opponents and minorities, has turned into a common feature in current political communication, particularly in populist parties. Simultaneously, political organizations have turned to TikTok looking for a way to reach out to and connect with younger, potentially less interested in politics, audiences. This study measures, compares, and characterizes the use of hate speech in the messages posted on TikTok by far-right and far-left political parties and politicians (from Italy, Germany, France, and Spain) during the 2024 European electoral. We used content analysis on those messages ( N = 668) to identify targets, rhetorical resources and emotional appeals used on such messages. We specifically compared hate messages addressed to minorities to weaponized content targeted at political rivals. We found that only a minority (10.1%) of messages included hate speech elements, with such messages being more frequent on the far right, specifically on those parties that still haven't been elected to positions of power. The political hate is mainly addressed to progressive politicians and their supporters. While messages against minorities, such as immigrants or LGBTQ+ people, were based on fear and employed otherness and dehumanization, weaponized content was built on rage and used mostly meta-perceptions and attribution of blame.