Hate speech, disputes over truth, epistemicide, and democratic crisisin the Global South

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between hate speech, contemporary disputes over truth, and the crisis of democracy, framing the analysis from an epistemic perspective rooted in the Global South. It argues that social datafication, generative artificial intelligence, and algorithmic governance are not neutral phenomena but rather contemporary reconfigurations of historical genealogies of domination that simultaneously erode the quality of democratic deliberation and deepen pre-existing inequalities of race, gender, and class. Drawing on the sociology of communication, law, political science, and decolonial theory, this paper proposes understanding hate speech as a form of power that articulates with post-truth to hollow out democratic procedures and produce epistemicides that is, the systematic destruction of situated knowledges. Through a critical documentary review of regulatory and academic sources, the text examines international regulatory frameworks addressing hate speech, discusses Latin American experiences of polarization and disinformation, and argues that the contemporary democratic crisis acquires unique characteristics in the Global South, linked to the institutional fragility inherited from colonialism. It concludes by highlighting the need for decolonial communication and politically situated higher education, capable of fostering plural epistemic communities that challenge from the Global South both the monopoly on truth and the very meaning of democracy in the face of digital platforms from the Global North.