Ottawa - A new poll has shown that more than half of Canadians under the age of 35 encounter racist or biased comments about immigrants online.

42 percent of all participants in the online poll conducted by Leger and the Canadian Association of Studies said they have seen or heard racist content about immigrants in cyberspace.

Nearly half of those aged 18 to 34 said they faced racist comments about Black people online, and the same percentage heard such comments about Indigenous people.

About two out of five in the same age group said they encountered this kind of content about Asian Canadians.

The case of a white armed man accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, last weekend highlighted the role of social media in promoting hate.

No margin of error can be assigned to the online survey, which included 1,697 Canadians during the week of April 25, because online surveys are not considered random samples.

For his part, Jack Jedwab, president of the Canadian Association of Studies, said it was not surprising that young people are more likely to see this type of content.

He added, "Many young people are exposed to these things because they are more active and engaged on social media."

About 10 percent of respondents said they often see racist comments online about different ethnic groups.

Jedwab said, "I don't think you can argue that one in ten is not a high percentage, because it actually represents a large number of people who see this kind of harsh talk daily on social media."

Non-white respondents were more likely than their white counterparts to say they faced racist comments online.

About three out of five non-white participants said they encountered racist comments about immigrants, compared to about two out of five white participants.

Jedwab added that this level of exposure to racist content should be a cause for concern in light of the recent shooting in Buffalo.

When young people were asked what they do when they see this type of content, they said they do nothing "because there is so much of it, and they don't know where to start."

In the same context, the federal government proposed a law to tighten the crackdown on hate speech and abuse by banning certain websites and forcing platforms to remove content quickly.

Edited by: Dima Abu Khair