Towards a harm-based framework to evaluate Cyberhate

Communication over the internet has removed historical and social challenges such as distance, noise, or prolonged delivery time, thus, moving communication from the physical space to cyberspace. It has led to an increase in the use of the internet to commit hate crimes. The impact of hateful crimes is documented in the literature, with limited success stories on currently deployed intervention. A framework that classifies the harmful effect of Cyberhate is proposed. It aims to enrich our knowledge of the harm from Cyberhate crimes, enhance existing intervention, and provide harm metrics to prosecute cyberhate offenders. To date, limited research has quantified the harmful impact of Cyberhate crime; hence, understanding the harm from Cyberhate would provide a new perspective, with the harm concepts an area argued to currently being understudied.