Kenya, which has seen all too much Dangerous Speech before elections, and violence after them, has been relatively free of both in period leading to its next presidential vote on August 8. This has just changed. The tortured corpse of Chris Msando, the Kenyan elections official in charge of electronic voting machines, was found in a forest outside Nairobi on Saturday.
Read MoreSocial norms can be powerful bulwarks against Dangerous Speech, but new evidence indicates social norms can change suddenly during elections.
Read MoreLouisiana Congressman Clay Higgins called for “radicalised Islamic suspects” to be hunted down and killed in a Facebook post. He repeatedly used the phrase “kill them all.” This is Dangerous Speech, and it is unacceptable.
Read MoreIn light of recent reports of Chechen authorities capturing and torturing gay men, this blog post examines how government actions, policies, and laws can emerge from and reinforce violent social norms.
Read MoreThis blog post provides an update on some of our major projects including our work to collect new examples of Dangerous Speech from around the world and our study of effective responses to harmful speech.
Read MoreIn France’s first round of presidential elections, more than seven million voters chose Marine Le Pen, who promises to suspend all immigration and ban Muslim headscarves. Skillful appeals to a fear of foreigners and a loathing of elites are widespread across Europe, with fierce anti-Islam sentiment as a common denominator for the continent’s far-right parties.
Read MoreWhen Sweden suffered a terrorist attack, Prime Minister Lofven responded by affirming civic values. Other world leaders should do the same.
Read MoreDangerous Speech, like hate speech or pornography, is difficult to define in a precise or objective way – which makes it difficult to train a machine to classify it reliably. A new Google-related research effort has made interesting progress by asking people to classify millions of online comments.
Read MoreUpdate 2/27/2017: Another incident of vandalism at a Jewish cemetery occurred yesterday, this time at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia. Clean-up…
Read MoreProfessor Cherian George describes a malevolent political strategy that consists of giving offense and taking offense. Like Dangerous Speech, hate spin is often based on misinformation and can promote discrimination and violence against vulnerable groups.
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