Hate Speech: The responsibility of the platforms

This year, it became more than clear how much the media permeate all areas of our lives. It’s a complex and diverse world in which even the traditional providers of print, radio and TV are presenting themselves with new formats. The media world is being actively shaped by podcasters, influencers, YouTubers and bloggers. In the upheaval of the media, digital is clearly winning. But here lies the challenge of being able to distinguish between information and fake news. Angelika Gifford, Facebook’s vice president in Europe, recently said: “We have 3.1 billion people on our platform, and we have a big responsibility to stop hate speech as well as fake news. Of course, this is a marathon, it’s not a sprint.”

Hate Speech: The responsibility of the platforms

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been criticized for not doing enough to counter hate speech among their users. The two big players are continuously working on their rules or on optimizing their algorithms. At Facebook, 35,000 people deal with the issue of Hate Speech. “We have the algorithm and the algorithm is getting better, I can promise you that. But ultimately, it’s a platform to give people a voice, to network. We’re on a good path there, but we’re never going to get to 100 percent,” Angelika Gifford says.

Hate speech, conspiracy theories and radicalization would not have the opportunity to spread and form as rapidly as they do without platforms like Facebook, Twitter and the like. Social media platforms make it easier for groups from right-wing extremist corners, for example, to come together and exchange ideas. Mostly without being successfully controlled by the respective platform, although they seem to be actively working against it.

one in twelve affected by hate speech

In the annual survey conducted by the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, 14 to 24 year-olds were asked about their perception of hate speech on the Internet. 94 percent said they had perceived hate speech on the Internet. A survey on hate speech by the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society in Jena (IDZ) came to the conclusion that eight percent of respondents had been personally affected by hate speech. That is, one in twelve. Negative effects of these experiences, including anxiety, depression, emotional stress, and problems with self-image were confirmed by the majority of those affected.

In recent years, the number of people affected by hate speech has increased. This contrasts with the rising curve of reported hate comments. Younger users in particular go on the offensive much more often. According to the NRW study, twice as many 14-24 year-olds report hate speech than five years ago. Sensitivity in the media to the issue is now greater and there are effective initiatives. Training courses, seminars and workshops teach social media account managers and journalists how to deal with hate speech.

Twitter – The ProCess To SuCCeSSful controL

Since 2019, Twitter has prioritized feedback from the public, external experts and its own teams to help further develop its hateful conduct policy, he said. The advisory groups, which are divided into topic areas such as Online Safety and Harassment, Human and Digital Rights, Child Sexual Exploitation, Suicide Prevention, and Psyche, are supplemented with Dehumanization.

On December 2, 2020, Twitter expanded its policies related to hateful content. The platform operators commented, “We will continue to surface potentially violent content through proactive detection and automation. If an account repeatedly violates Twitter’s rules, we may temporarily block or suspend the account.” Twitter commented on its website. Regarding the existing criticism, Twitter commented as follows: “Many people expressed concerns about our ability to enforce our rules fairly and consistently. So we developed a longer, more thorough training process with our teams to ensure they were better prepared when they reviewed the report. But even with these improvements, we recognize that we will still make mistakes. We are committed to continuing to work to strengthen both our enforcement process and our appeals process to correct our mistakes and prevent similar errors.”

Hatred is born in society

The fight against hate speech cannot be won, but it must be fought. The problem here is not to be found in the social platforms and social networks. Rather, hate itself is anchored in our society. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook provide a convenient way for people to encounter others they would otherwise never encounter in reality. As a society, we are not yet doing justice to the enthusiasm for the potential of what these encounters digitally vouch for in the true sense. Clear guidelines and “censorship” help to contain a public visibility on the net of hate speech. Ultimately, however, we will never be able to completely rid the web of hate speech.

 


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