Some say it's speech or writing that deliberately expresses hatred toward a person or group. Others find it a deceptive term used to muzzle someone who merely expresses an idea that a person or group would rather not be publicized.
For example, if I say that three times as many black slaves were enslaved by Arabs as by American whites, does that constituted hate speech? And am I hating blacks, or Arabs? Or if I protest slavery in Sudan, again does that make me anti-black or anti-Arab somehow?
Must I be forbidden even to express the idea, in no matter what terms, because the idea itself is considered 'hate speech' and therefore forbidden?