64% of Workers Say They Have Encountered Hate Speech Online... Women and People From Certain Regions Often Targeted

Workplace Gapjil 119 Surveys 1,000 Workers
33% of Those Who Encountered Hate Speech: "Became Wary of Colleagues' Remarks"

More than six in 10 workers have encountered hate speech targeting a particular group online.

Workplace Gapjil 119, a civic group, announced on the 15th the results of a survey titled “Experiences with and Effects of Online Hate Speech.” The group commissioned Global Research, a polling firm, to survey 1,000 workers aged 19 or older nationwide from August 1 to 7. The survey found that 64.3% of respondents had encountered hate speech targeting a particular group online.

Women were the most frequently targeted group, cited by 48.3% of respondents, followed by people from “specific regions” (48.2%), sexual minorities (45.5%), migrants and foreigners (44.6%), people in “specific age groups” (43.7%), and people with disabilities (41.8%). By gender, 70.7% of female respondents said they had encountered hate speech online, 11.5 percentage points (P) higher than the 59.2% of male respondents who said the same.

Hate speech encountered online was also found to affect workplace life and relationships with colleagues.

Among respondents who had encountered hate speech, 33.1% said, “I became more wary of colleagues’ remarks or jokes and started reacting more sensitively.” This was followed by “I became more interested in workplace bullying or discrimination” (23.6%), “I started avoiding conversations with colleagues about certain topics” (23.5%), “I developed prejudice toward colleagues who belong to certain groups” (23.3%), and “I felt intimidated or afraid at the thought that I could become a target of hate” (12.6%). The survey’s margin of error was ±3.1 percentage points (P) at a 95% confidence level.

In fact, numerous cases reported to Workplace Gapjil 119 involved people in positions of authority, such as bosses or managers, using hate speech alongside work-related criticism or verbal abuse. Examples from counseling cases released by the group included remarks insulting people on the basis of their region, age, or nationality, such as, “You’re from 00 Province, right? I wouldn’t hire people from 00 Province,” “Millennials & Gen Z have no common sense,” and “You smell like you’re from (a certain country).”

Yeo Sujin, chair of Workplace Gapjil 119’s Special Committee on Gender-Based Abuse and a certified labor attorney, said, “Hate speech is not only discriminatory harassment that stigmatizes and excludes specific groups; it is also an issue directly connected to everyone’s safety at work, because anyone can become a target of hate.” She added, “We must establish clear standards prohibiting hate speech in the workplace and strengthen employers’ responsibilities, including by educating employees.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.