“Rethinking Online Anti-Gender Hate Speech” by Moa Bladini and Eva-Maria Svensson is an insightful academic work that reframes how we understand and respond to gender-based hate speech in digital spaces. The authors analyze the real-world effects of anti-gender hate speech and how it is addressed—or often insufficiently regulated—within legal systems. They propose a fresh framework situating freedom of expression within democratic values, illustrating how such hate speech threatens both individual dignity and societal diversity. The book is notable for its dual focus as a challenge to personal rights and as a structural threat to democratic principles, making it a significant contribution to the fields of legal scholarship and democratic theory.

In the second part, Moa Bladini and Eva-Maria Svensson delve deeper into regulation strategies, examining the continuum of anti-gender hate speech—from subtle remarks to explicit hostility—and its cumulative harm. They argue that freedom of expression should be reimagined beyond individual rights to serve the collective democratic good. The authors advocate for a multifaceted response that includes criminal regulation, education, platform accountability, and civil society collaboration, aiming to protect inclusive and participatory democracies against the undermining impact of gender-targeted hate speech¹.