The Internet of Hate and Loathing (Vihan ja inhon internet, Kosmos 2017) is a book of comics journalism about online misogyny, a phenomenon that threatens our democracy. Hate speech is often justified with freedom of speech, but in fact it is silencing the voices of women and minorities. We are in danger of losing these voices from public debate as many now censor themselves in fear of hateful messages and other, even more disturbing forms of harassment.
The book begins with true stories of women who have been targeted solely due to expressing their opinion online, or because of their work as academics, journalists, aid workers, and politicians. The second part looks into what academic research tells us about online hate. Next, we look at the haters and trolls and their motives. The book concludes with a very practical approach into solving the problem: how the targets can protect themselves and how we can all help.
Drawing the Times is publishing two extracts from the beginning of the book, translated by Johanna Vehkoo from Finnish.
