Digital Hate Speech, Religious Disinformation, and Peacebuilding in India

The expansion of digital spaces in India has led to unprecedented avenues of civic engagement and democratic participation, at the same time, missed opportunities of hate speech and religious disinformation spreading at an unprecedentedly fast rate, undermining social cohesion and causing societal safety. This chapter reflects the dynamics of political, sociological, legal, and psychological aspects of the multilayered nature of digital hate speech, religious disinformation campaigns, and peacebuilding efforts in India using an integral, interdisciplinary approach to these issues. Based on empirical studies of recent communal conflicts, social media research, and policy principles, the chapter has shown that online hate speech has high levels of correlation with offline violence against religious minorities. The analysis has also shown the failure of the existing regulatory measures and the policies of the platform to deal with context-specific hate speech in the Indian languages.