Xenophobia is Malta’s most prominent form of hate speech and occurs at a much higher frequency than homophobic hate speech, a study by the University of Malta has revealed.

The study was carried out within the Institute of Linguistics and Language Technology, and confirmed findings that in Malta hate speech and hate crime are often not seen as a serious offence and is significantly under-reported.

The report produced for C.O.N.T.A.C.T. project (Creating an On-line Network, monitoring Team and phone App to Counter hate crime Tactics), delved into the local context. Where the influx in irregular migrants, the recent legalization of civil unions and the new Gender Identity Bill have had an effect on society and have conjured hate speech problems and hate crime targeted at minorities in Malta.

However, the overall findings showed that that xenophobic speech occurs much more prominently and to a much harsher degree than homophobic speech. The study relates this with the ever increasing sentiments of increasing racism, Islamophobia, and anti-migrant discourse, which also have connections to nationalism, patriotism, fear and anything that incites strong emotional responses.

The study, which analysed negative comments Maltese leave on media platforms online, found that it is clear that while there is a presence of a negative attitude towards both minorities, the attitude is far more prevalent in the case of Migrants than it is in that of members of the LGBTIQ community – 32 per cent of comments being negative on migrant issues and only 19 per cent for issues regarding LGBTIQ community.

Furthermore the study looked into how many people would actually consider reporting hate speech for themselves or someone else. The surveys revealed that most did not know and 150 respondents expressed their unwillingness or non-committal to reporting hate incidents directed at them, the highest proportion provided as a reason their lack of confidence in the relevant authorities’ ability to do something about the incident (62.7 per cent) and the amount of hassle that reporting a hate speech incident takes (54 per cent).