More Than Words: Aspects of Online Misogyny

The conceptualization and legal framework of hate in contemporary democracies have recently moved to the spotlight, with respect to the traditional attention paid to the issue of freedom of speech. The recent migration of public speech from offline environments to online scenarios requires a more insightful treatment of these issues, in order to understand how there are gendered dynamics that are reproduced among Internet users. The article provides a legal survey of hate in International and European legislation but from a gender perspective, in order to deal later with a comparison between Italian and Spanish legislations. Its aim is to address the conflict between freedom of speech and the compromises that States assume in order to pro-vide specific subjects with protection against online forms of gender-based violence.