Let’s stone this trash: Hate speech in Icelandic context

Abstract

Growing hate speech in the global north has been seen as one characteristic of the present. The anti-migration rhetoric of Donald Trump and in relation to Brexit are by many seen as mainstreaming and accepting hate and, hence, creating fruitful soil to further dissemination of hate speech. Also, some media outlets strongly focus on producing and disseminating anti-migration rhetoric and hate speech. Within such an environment hate groups can grow both discursively and by executing physical violence against minority groups. This article focuses on hate speech in Iceland. It looks at homepages that disseminate hate or negative discourse against minority groups. Examples are taken of pages from political parties, information sites and groups with an open anti-migration agenda in order to analyse in which ways hate is expressed. Our findings suggest that negative discourses toward various minority groups are quite common and growing in Iceland. The majority of the negative speech is directed towards Muslims.