Hate speech has become an increasing problem for social media platforms and there is a need for more research, especially in relation to languages other than English. The XPEROHS project, co-funded by the Velux Foundations and the Department of Language and Communication (2018-2022), seeks to investigate how hate speech is expressed in Danish and German on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Using corpus linguistic techniques, we will create a database to help reveal the extent and nature of online hate speech. The aim is to identify differing degrees of hate speech, from the more direct to the more implicit. Using physiological and neurological measurements, we will investigate how hate speech is perceived by differing groups in society. The experimental measures will be supported by questionnaires and interviews. Comparisons between Danish and German will allow us to identify any shared features in the expression and normative perceptions of hate speech across languages and cultures.
