42.3% of people saw hostile messages online in 2025 – News articles

In 2025, 42.3% of internet users in the EU encountered messages online that they considered hostile and degrading towards specific groups of people or individuals. The EU aggregate is based on 20 countries for which data are available.

In 7 EU countries, more than half of the people encountered such messages. The highest shares were recorded in Hungary (60.9%), Finland (56.7%) and Slovakia (56.2%).

In contrast, the lowest shares were in Latvia (29.3%), Greece (29.4%), Germany (33.7%) and Lithuania (33.8%).

 

Source dataset: isoc_ci_hm

Hostile and degrading messages targeted different groups of people or individuals. Most people saw messages that targeted people for their political or social views (33.7%), racial and ethnic origin (25.5%), sexual orientation (23.4%) and religion or belief (22.8%). Hostile messages also targeted people based on sex (16.9%), disability (11.5%), age (8.8%), or other personal characteristics (8.5%). 

Targets of hostile or degrading messages online in the EU, 2025  (% of internet users who encountered such messages). Chart. See link to the full dataset below.

 

Source dataset: isoc_ci_hm

Eurostat

Eurostat

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