COVID-19 and Anti-Silesian Speech in Poland 2020-2021

This case study discusses dangerous speech in May and June 2020 that targeted the inhabitants of Silesia, a region of Poland that was the country’s COVID-19 epicenter in the first months of the pandemic. Silesia is the most densely populated region in Poland, and many of its residents work in industries like coal mining that continued to operate during the pandemic, putting them at greater risk of infection. Because Silesia was the first epicenter of the disease in Poland, Silesians, the inhabitants of this region, were victims of various forms of discrimination, both online and in real-life situations.