Why this Sudbury hockey player says online hate is becoming dangerous

Brock McGillis used to live and breathe hockey during his time in the Ontario Hockey League. Now, he spends his time as a 2SLGBTQ+ advocate, speaking to young people about his experiences of homophobia and hate.

As he explains, he's been the target of online hate since he came out in 2016. He says it's only getting worse and more visible with social media.

In one example, he says he received about 150 death threats over one weekend in 2018 after he made a comment that was critical of the NHL.

"More recently, I've seen a growing amount of harassment and hate online during Pride month and it's predominantly on Twitter. People create anonymous accounts and spew stuff," explains McGillis.

In late June, McGillis took to social media to share an email he received containing homophobic stereotypes. The person who sent the email asked the former player to stop publicizing issues surrounding the 2SLGBTQ+ community that they claimed was "wrecking children's minds."

"This person had been messaging me from their personal… social media account for years… it's pretty extreme."

He says he gets homophobic slurs daily on the internet.

"Now, I'm at a point where it's almost like I dissociate that with me. It's like it's directed at a persona or at a social media account. And, I'm not that account."

He says the increase is due to the misinformation around the 2SLGBTQ+ community and an increase in social media users since the pandemic.

"This is how people are now existing in the world, I think it's only going to get worse," he said.

He explains this hate has led to higher levels of self-harm and suicide rates among the community. According to Rainbow Health Ontario, a province-wide program to improve health access for the 2SLGBTQ+ community, there are high rates of depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and phobic disorders, suicidal thoughts and acts, self-harm, and alcohol and drug dependence in the community. 

Lisa LaChance, the MLA for Halifax Citadel-Sable Island and founder of social change enterprise Wisdom2Action, says youth in the community are also affected when they see a leader experience hate online.

"It can really have a chilling effect on folks and particularly on young people… it really compounds the feeling of not being safe and really affects young people with what choices they make," they said.

As LaChance explains, young people who see hate online will often shy away from being in the spotlight or furthering their development due to the fear of also receiving hate. 

Hate seen on social media will only increase with generative artificial intelligence, explains Brett Caraway, an associate professor of media economics and social media expert at the University of Toronto. Generative AI will allow users to create any image or text on demand.

"Generative AI will make it possible for each individual message, whether it's a public post or a direct message to somebody or a comment on a post, each one of those can be unique, but also mass produced. So there's a very real chance here that problems around hate speech and problematic content is going to get much, much worse."

AI will become weaponized. he says.

"All this power that the user now has is considerable. You can expose someone, you can draw attention to someone, and maybe that invites attention of other people who will direct hateful messages at that person," explains Caraway.

McGillis asks those spreading hate online one question.

"If we know we hurt somebody, maybe we have an instant gratification at the moment sending a message of hate or whatever. But if you recognize the impact that you're truly hurting somebody and you're causing harm, self-harm, suicide, mental health struggles, does that make you feel good?"