｜Chapter 2｜ Concept and Types of Hate Speech Hate Speech and Historical Denialism In response to the distortion of facts about the Gwangju Massacre, there have been calls for punishment for the distortion of historical facts. There were legislation proposals to punish not only the distortion of the Gwangju Massacre, but also the praising of Japan and the distortion of the pro-democracy movement and the Jeju Massacre. In European countries, including Germany, this is called the crime of historical denialism, and expressions that deny historical facts are criminalized. However, the crime of historical denialism does not punish all acts of historical denialism, but only punishes the denial and distortion of historical facts related to serious issues of the violation of human rights. The historical denialism of discriminatory crimes is closely related to the discrimination of social minorities. Groups that were historically targeted were social minorities, and hate, discrimination, and violence towards those groups ultimately led to massacres. Therefore, denying such crimes may lead to the justification of the crimes and discrimination towards the social minority groups who were targeted. For example, denying the Holocaust is discrimination towards its victims such as Jewish people, minorities, disabled people, and sexual minorities. In this aspect, expressions of historical denialism are not only simple denials of historical facts, but are also a type of hate speech that causes discrimination for social minorities. It is hate speech that comes in the form of historical denialism. In other words, expressions that cause racial discrimination are shown in the form of historical denialism such as “There was no Holocaust.” In Korea, the denial of the Gwangju Massacre may be related with discrimination towards the Honam area. 22