Counterspeech

Why talk back?

Just as dangerous speech can teach people to hate and fear others, contradicting it can do the opposite. Counterspeech can improve group discourse either by changing people's hateful or violence-inciting beliefs or by persuading them not to spread such ideas.

How does it work?

People have surely been arguing ever since the first humans learned to talk. But the internet has given vastly more opportunities for what we call counterspeech – any response to hateful or harmful speech that seeks to undermine it – since people are exposed online to far more hatred, disinformation, and dangerous speech from more sources than ever before. Many have spontaneously seized the chance to counterspeak. Around the world, tens of thousands of people respond regularly and directly to what they consider hateful or harmful content online, with some encouraging results.

In our research, we have found many counterspeakers who have persisted at it daily or weekly, for years. Some do it alone, while others work in large groups, following their own codes of conduct. Group members also encourage each other to keep at it, an important practice as their efforts are generally unpaid, repetitive, and emotionally draining. Some groups have kept going consistently for more than seven years. Counterspeech can have a positive effect on discourse in several ways. It can convince people to stop posting or spreading harmful content, by changing their beliefs or only their behavior. (The latter is possible since people can come to fear criticism or social sanction for publicly expressing a belief, even if they still hold it.)

Discourse may also improve without any change in the views or online expression of people posting hatred. Instead, counterspeakers can succeed by influencing the “audience” - the people who read their comments. That audience often greatly outnumbers the original posters and counterspeakers, and often many of them agree with the counterspeakers, but most of them don’t post. Counterspeech can encourage a silent audience to chime in and even become regular counterspeakers, thus gradually shifting discourse toward the views expressed in counterspeech, even if no beliefs change. Audience views can also change, of course, in response to counterspeech.

Counterspeech Case Studies

See All

Frequently
Asked Questions

What is counterspeech? Please explain the definition.

Where does the idea of counterspeech come from?

How is counterspeech different from counternarrative?

What have you discovered about the varieties of counterspeech? 

Isn’t counterspeaking lonely and depressing?

So - does it work?

Who does counterspeech, and why? 

Can counterspeech be harmful?‍

Why does the DSP study counterspeech? 

Successful Counterspeech on Twitter

Lucas Wright4, Derek Ruths2, Kelly P Dillon3, Haji Mohammad Saleem2, and Susan Benesch1,4

1Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University
2School of Computer Science, McGill University
3Department of Communication, Wittenberg University
4Dangerous Speech Project

Overview

A study of conversations on Twitter found that some arguments between strangers led to favorable change in discourse and even in attitudes. We propose that such exchanges can be useful distinguished accordgin to wheter individuals or groups take part on each side, since the opportunity for a constructive exchange of views seems to vary accordingly. We describe four corresponding "vectors."

What is successful counterspeech?

A study of conversations on Twitter found that some arguments between strangers led to favorable change in discourse and even in attitudes. We propose that such exchanges can be useful distinguished accordgin to wheter individuals or groups take part on each side, since the opportunity for a constructive exchange of views seems to vary accordingly. We describe four corresponding "vectors."

One-to-one

Exchanges, often lengthy, between two accounts Remarkable shifts in tone were observed.

In honor of MLK day today. I'm taking a vow to use the word 'nigger' as many times as possible and in the most inappropriate times.

'Let no man pull you so low as to hate him' — Martin Luther King Jr.

'I hope I get shot soon' — Martin Luther King Jr.

[.] Does your mom know you spend your time on the internet trying to hurt people?

I doubt it. She's been dead for a year and ahalf now so...

I'm sorry for your loss. And I hope you find a better way to honor her.

You are so nice and I'm so sorry

Many-to-one

Viral counterspeech overwhels its target. does it convince, or silence?

I am literally soo mad right now a ARAB won #MissAmerica

One day I hope you realize how shameful this tweet is. I hope you realize it tomorrow.

your hatred made it onto sky news! Congrats!

Ignorant/iliterate/racist/idiot

@MissAmerica sorry for being rude and 'racist' and calling you a Arab please tweet back so everyone will know it's real

One-to-many

A single user responds to many others. Can also be described as multiple one-to-one exchanges.

I was prompted to write this after a recent Facebook discussion [.] when the termn 'abeed' (slaves) was used in a thread, in reference to a news story about an African American woman, who flashed an Arab American businesswoman in Detroit, during a verbal dispute. What was disturbing [.] was not simply the racist comments that were used about the unryly woman, but that some showed a profound lack of empathy when i mentioned that the term 'abeed' is ahurtful word.

The basis of Islam is equality before God. So how can we toletare derogatory, racial slurs and still call ourselves Muslim? #DropTheAWord

Many-to-many

Competing hastags, or struggle over control of/opinions expressed on a single hashtag.

It's going to be -27 without wind chill tomorrow morning and I have class at 8 #FuckPhyllis #Cunt #Bitch #Whore

In a room with Phyllis Wise, Adolf Hitler, and a gun with one bullet, Who do I shoot? #fuckphyllis

As an alumn, I'm completely embarrased with the behavior of some of you assclowns, #fuckphyllis, If I were UIUC I'd publicly shame all of u.

Oh and good luck, bitching students, your asinine and ignorant tweets are viewed by EVERYONE NOW #fuckphyllis

So happy to see the #fuckphyllis tag has been taked over by people calling out the racism that was in it.

NLP Challenges and Opportunities

Computational approaches are required in order to study and engage conterspeech efforts at scale. This has not yet been attempted.

Detection is unusually difficult, for reasons including these:

counterspeech can involve a brad range of audience sizes - from single counterspeakers to whole communities.

a single counterpeech act can exhibit a variety of communicatuve strategies.

Future research

What are the norm-influencing capacities of hashtags around public events and controversies? How do those hashtags break through like-minded silos that prevent the exchange of ideas?

We thank Public Safety Canada's Kanishka Project for funding this research, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for supporting the Dangerous Speech Project.

Continued study of counterspeech is essential, especially as censorship and takedown proliferate as methods of regulating online speech. Unlike those flawed responses, counterspeech doesn’t impinge on freedom of expression and can be practiced by almost anyone. The other resources collected here are useful sources for better understanding counterspeech, both online and offline.

Featured Resources

Explore Library