The Legal Categorisation of Cyber Hate: A Corpus-Assisted Exploration of Prompting, Inciting, Insulting and Making Contemptuous in Hate Speech Discourse

This study explores discourses on hate speech in Austria. It examines the use of legal concepts such as prompting, inciting, insulting and making contemptuous in a corpus of 363,046 tokens and 31,313 types. The corpus consists of the proceedings of the Austrian National Council in December 2020, 262 press releases and 43 Supreme Court (OGH) rulings between 2016 and 2023 all of which revolve around the notion of hate speech. The corpus-assisted analysis reveals inciting as the most dominant concept, with various actors making use of linguistic resources differently. In this context, the article contextualises and engages with typical approaches within legal frameworks for addressing hate speech, considering harm-based, content-based, intrinsic properties-based, and dignity-based perspectives (Post, Hate speech, 2009.). The Austrian legal concept of milieubedingte Unmutsäußerung is discussed as a means of differentiating between genuine threats and strong expressions of discontent without harmful intent. It is argued that there is a need for consistency in applying hate speech legislation and case law, suggesting that critical applied legal linguistics (CrALL) can develop and provide theoretical and methodological frameworks to address challenges in improving, implementing, and applying effective hate speech legislation and case law.