Hateful Speech On the Internet - Must be Banned!

I've been thinking a lot about how much hate speech has increase on the Internet in the past decade.

Verbal, in-person hateful speech has been regulated and published, but now those same people who used to attack people verbally in person seem to be taking it online.

Case in point, I am astonished when I read about all the racist, sexist comments that are often made about the politicians and celebrities. They may be public figures, which means constructive criticisms about their behaviors and actions are allowed to be verbalized and stated. However, once these comments become personal and downright mean, they are considered hateful speech and can be punished.

Last week, one anonymous coward had the nerve to come up with a Twitter name that says "IHATE(celebrity name, which I won't reveal). I, along with other individuals on Twitter, took it as our responsibility to report this hateful person and had him/her removed from Twitter.

I often like to go under the comments page on several online publications and report hateful speech to the host. It is absolutely unacceptable! These same people that post such mean comments would NEVER have the guts to actually face the people they are talking badly about, let alone say these to their faces.

It's pretty simple: If it's something you wouldn't think of or even dare saying it to the person you are commenting about, don't hide behind your computer and post these comments online. You will be punished by the Internet Police and many anti-hateful speech volunteers such as myself.

Let's spread love, not hate.

What have your experiences been like with hateful speech? Has anyone ever posted anything on Facebook about you that you found insulting? What have you done to fix the problem?