Watch it people! Choose your words before you utter them

Hold your tongue before you swear! In a major research undertaken jointly by the Gujarat Forensic Sciences University and Raksha Shakti University, researchers can now find out what you meant when you said something. The experts will now interpret if you have abused someone with sweet words or, in some cases, genuinely indulged in a hate speech.

The study 'Hate Speech: Forensic Detection of person, deception and Intention' conducted by professors Ruttuja Karkhanis and Surbhi Mathur of GFSU and professor Sumit Kumar Choudhary of RSU analysed voice recordings of hate speech of 10 individuals and compared with their respective control voice samples, both audibly and spectrographically. The aim was to find out the similarities and dissimilarities in their phonetic, acoustic and linguistic features including speech quality, delivery and flow of speech, speech rate, pronunciation, talking style, et cetera.

"Article 19 of Indian Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech and expression, giving every citizen an equal right to communicate in the way they desire. This freedom of expression nowadays has extended to unpopular ideas and statements which shocks, offends and disturb humanity. Incidents of hate speeches are becoming popular in our country where the speakers express their hatred towards a particular group of people on the basis of their religion, race, caste, gender, ethnic origin or sexual orientation. The speakers using such abusive words, later on, deny of being the source of these communications and also justify upon their intention behind such statements. The main objective of this paper is to study the significance of forensic technology in linking these verbal communications with the particular speaker. The integration of technologies can also aid in determining the intention of the speakers in making such disputable assertations," Professor Mathur said.

She added, "We took 10 hate speeches, part of political rallies, and found that the higher the stress less of guilt was seen, stability in the stress pattern would also result in the less of guilt while an unstable stress factor leads to increase in guilt pattern."