Exploring the topics, sentiments and hate speech in the Spanish information environment

In societies valuing freedom of expression, individuals now frequently express and share their opinions, integrating this practice as a natural part of their routines. Unfortunately, this new social and informational landscape has favored an unprecedented amplification of cyber threats such as hate speech and disinformation, posing significant risks to democratic systems Office of Science and Technology of the Congress of Deputies (Office C) (2023). This situation has intensified and drawn substantial attention from the research community, governmental bodies, and the general public, particularly following extensive disinformation campaigns associated with recent events, including the COVID-19 pandemic Kim and Kesari (2021), the Russia-Ukraine war Pierri et al. (2022), and the Israel-Palestine conflict Aljazeera (2024). Consequently, a structured model encapsulating the key actors, dynamics, and resulting societal impacts is proposed to understand and contextualize the environment being worked on. Figure 1 illustrates our threat model with three main components. In blue, the media and audience as actors in the model, providing the information environment with online news and social network posts that people can read, react to, and comment on. In orange, the content is considered potentially harmful due to intrinsic hateful narratives of today's ecosystem (particularly, public reactions that will be the focus of this research work). In red, the online situation leads to polarization, extremism, and heightened tension, creating a vulnerable environment for society OSMUNDSEN et al. (2021); Cinelli et al. (2021); Pastor-Galindo et al. (2021). In fact, this agitated context serves as a vector for disinformation to become more effective Kim and Kesari (2021).