‘It’s a lost case’: a qualitative study investigating perceptions of young adult bystanders on online hate speech on social media

Bystanders of online hate speech (OHS) can play a crucial role in the continuation of OHS. Therefore, it is important to understand what bystanders think, feel and do when witnessing OHS. Lived experiences of bystanders could help in understanding which factors determine, according to bystanders’ interpretations, their attitudes towards and behaviours in response to OHS. To this aim, in-depth interviews were conducted among 25 young adult social media users. A thematic analysis revealed that bystanders define OHS in different ways. Many feel that this behaviour is ‘unnecessary’. Bystanders often feel the need to distance or ignore when witnessing OHS. They experience many barriers to performing positive bystander behaviour, including costing too much effort and being anxious about others’ evaluations. Due to the omnipresence of OHS, bystanders feel that OHS is normalised; however, some perceive this as disturbing and feel OHS causes polarisation in society.