This month, we delve into a special type of dangerous speech – one that doesn’t attack anyone. Instead, this speech valorizes violence, characterizing it as something honorable and connected to the identity of the in-group.
Read MoreWho safeguards democracy against tech-driven political violence? Eisenstat, Hendrix, & Kreiss analyze online platforms’ roles in US and global election violence, proposing preventive measures. They question the effectiveness of current models in addressing extremism threats.
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Transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people have become a primary target of such speech. Influential politicians, media figures, and religious leaders are falsely portraying transgender people as threats to children, cisgender women, families, traditional values, and public safety.
Read MoreIn 2023, India Hate Lab (IHL) documented 668 hate speech events targeting Muslims. Similarly, IHL recorded 255 of the events in the first half of 2023, while the number rose to 413 events in the second half of the year, a 62% increase.
Read MoreTrust and Safety Professional Association
This curriculum chapter from the Trust and Safety Professional Association helps tech company staff understand how to work with external partners. DSP Director of Operations Tonei Glavinic contributed.
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“Companies are regulating human expression more than any government does. And more than any government ever has,” Susan Benesch explained.
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Susan Benesch and Cathy Buerger for the L.A. Times: Two unrelated facts combined with a lie form a powerful and dangerous piece of misinformation that is spreading virally.
Read MoreSupreme Court of the United States
This brief cites “The Insidious Creep of Violent Rhetoric”, Executive Director Susan Benesch’s essay for Noema, in which she illustrates that it’s possible to incite violence very effectively without directly calling for it. Her work supports the amicus brief, which explores how the events surrounding the 2020 U.S. election and the violence on January 6, 2021 relate to events that have caused democratic erosion and collapse in other countries.
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As the U.S. election approaches, there is a growing possibility of intergroup violence along with an increase in dangerous and hateful speech. How can we best respond as peacebuilders? In this hour-long workshop hosted by Peace Through Action USA, Director of Research Cathy Buerger will discuss one possible response to online hatred – counterspeech.
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During the campaign for 300 seats to be filled in its national parliament, Bangladesh has seen mass protests, violence including killings, and a notable increase in dangerous speech, which Professor Aynul Islam of Dhaka University and his team have illustrated with examples in this new dataset.
Read MoreMay 2022
This report offers a firsthand account of the local context and explores the hallmarks of dangerous speech that were identified in Bangladesh, offering examples of each hallmark with analysis. It also describes cases in which dangerous speakers continue to spread their messages with impunity, and one case in which a target of dangerous speech successfully pushed back.
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The Dangerous Speech Project has written a Toolkit on Using Counterspeech to Tackle Online Hate Speech in collaboration with the Future of Free Speech project, as a resource for learning effective counterspeech strategies.
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Criticism of Facebook’s role in the Rohingya genocide largely focuses on anti-Rohingya speech. But content targeting and shaming members of the in-group – like calling people traitors for showing empathy for the Rohingya – also played a significant role.
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New working paper by the Disinformation Project titled ‘Transgressive transitions’ outlines a measurable rise in both volume and tone of transphobia, as well as evidence of foreign interference in New Zealand online communities.
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Professor at Harvard University, Susan Benesch, stated at an international conference in the Azores that “living conditions do not seem to be the determining factor” in relation to hate speech.
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Former members of the Twitter Trust and Safety Council, condemn the abrupt disbanding of the Council on Monday night, and call on Twitter to commit to its users safety.
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In this report on conspiracy theories for the Philosophy Talk podcast, DSP Executive Director Susan Benesch shares how they often constitute dangerous speech and increase the risk of intergroup violence.
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Cathy Buerger will be participating in the virtual Conference on Supremacism and Authoritarianism, discussing the threat of antidemocratic and supremacist movements, ideologies, and politics.
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In her latest op ed for Just Security, Susan Benesch details the pattern of incendiary language in the United States, and presents tools for countering it.
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The report definitively concludes that Russia bears State responsibility for breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
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This talk explores what we do (and don’t yet) know about how “real-world” violence is inspired online, and important considerations for researchers in identifying, scoping, and studying aspects of this relationship.
Read MoreIn early 2016, a cover of the Polish magazine wSieci (“the Network”) showed a blonde white woman screaming in terror as dark-skinned male hands grabbed her body, hair, and the dress she wore, which seemed to be made from the flag of the European Union. The image was emblazoned with text reading, in Polish, “the Islamic rape of Europe.”
Read More“MTN” is the name of the largest telco operator in Africa. The company’s slogan, “everywhere you go,” was used as a code in South Sudan to allege that members of the Dinka tribe were encroaching on the lands of other ethnic groups.
Read MoreWhile delivering a sermon in the Taunggyi Township in the Shan State of Myanmar, Ashin Ka-U Nawbata, a Buddhist monk, taught his followers to fear their Muslim neighbors.
Read MoreIn late February 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenyan Member of Parliament (MP) Patrick Makau encouraged people to stone Chinese visitors to Kenya who, he said, were violating orders to quarantine.
Read MoreOver and over at political rallies, Donald Trump read the lyrics of a song which he turned into dangerous speech by giving it an entirely new meaning. “The Snake” describes a woman who rescues a half-frozen serpent, only to have it betray her kindness with a lethal bite. Trump frames it as a warning that foreigners pose a mortal threat to Americans.
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This working paper analyzes shifts in online discourse around COVID-19 (including vaccinations) in New Zealand online spaces following the resumption of strict lockdowns in August 2021, with a focus on how mis- and disinformation intersects with dangerous speech, far-right ideologies, and targeting of marginalized groups.
Read MoreStanford University Cyber Policy Center
This piece by Adriana Stephan of the Stanford Internet Observatory offers a clear side-by-side comparison of online platforms’ hate speech policies and enforcement mechanisms.
Read MoreFollowing Facebook’s announcement of plans to create a content moderation oversight board, internet and human rights organization Access Now lays out a set of principles designed to help platforms create content moderation processes and practices that will protect free expression.
Read MoreChange the Terms, a coalition of US civil rights organizations, offers a series of recommended policies that internet companies should adopt to address “hateful activities” on their services.
Read MoreThis Wikimedia resource compiles interdisciplinary research on understanding and responding to the problem of online harassment, and serves as an excellent starting point for scholars and practitioners alike.
Read MoreWatch (or listen) to a full conversation with DSP’s Susan Benesch, Bobby Chesney, and moderator Chimène Keitner about Dangerous Speech and “deep fake” inauthentic content online.
Read MoreWhat can we do to protect democratic discourse and decision-making in the age of “dangerous speech” and digitally altered photos…
Read MoreThis June, Executive Director Susan Benesch spoke on a panel at FriEnt Peacebuilding Forum in Berlin, Germany, which addressed how online polarization can encourage the spread of hateful and Dangerous Speech online and offline. Here, FriEnt has collected key takeaways from the discussion, and recommendations for collaboration and exchange in efforts to counter harmful content.
Read MoreThis guide by Anna Szilagyi covers a number of ways to counter common tropes in antisemitic speech. It is part of a pan-European “Get the Trolls Out!” youth education campaign by the Media Diversity Institute, the International Centre for Journalists, a Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe, the Centre for Independent Journalism, the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism, and Symbiosis. It is also available in Greek, French, and Hungarian.
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Our Data-Driven Decency panel at RightsCon 2018 explored experiments to diminish online hate and harassment. Here are our notes on these efforts, and considerations for future interventions.
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This video highlights the impact that gender-based online harassment has on women’s ability to participate in political and public life, which has implications for their ability to resist or counter Dangerous Speech.
Read MoreA collaboration of #ICANHELP, iCanHelpline.org, the Dangerous Speech Project, HeartMob, and Project HEAR, this comic distills counterspeech tips into an accessible graphic that is great for students.
Read MoreIn June, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University hosted a workshop to discuss how market dynamics, behavioral drivers, laws, and technology contribute to the spread of harmful speech online and inform measures to constrain it. Dangerous Speech Project director Susan Benesch spoke at the workshop, arguing that there should be third-party auditing of platforms’ use of algorithms for content removal.
Read MoreIn this important new book, Gregory Gordon provides a historical overview of speech and atrocity, including the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide, as well as the modern treatment of hate speech in international human rights and domestic law.
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This guide offers strategies and tools to prevent dangerous speech from influencing audiences, drawing from a range of disciplines—from political…
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This report from CITAD, a Nigerian organization dedicated to the use of information and communications technology (ICT) for development and good governance, shares the findings of a Dangerous Speech monitoring project during Nigeria’s 2015 elections.
Read MoreManipulation is a form of abuse. However, many of us lack sufficient self-defence training to recognise and resist it. This…
Read MoreDuring the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal riots, in which over sixty people died and thousands were displaced, social media was reported…
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This paper offers reflections and observations on the state of research related to harmful speech online. The perspectives outlined here…
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This essay seeks to review some of the various attempts to define hate speech, and pull from them a series…
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Through interviews with leaders of civil society organizations (CSOs) and a review of existing literature, this study discusses efforts and…
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Hate speech is a serious concern in the Republic of India. However, Indian law does not use the phrase “hate…
Read MoreThe Center for Global Communication Studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication conducted an evaluation of the…
Read MoreThis report on Internet hate speech, hate speech law, and efforts to diminish it synthesizes research and case studies from four countries. It was published by the European project BRICkS Against Hate Speech.
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The final report released by the Mechachal project, one of first academic studies to contextually examine how hate speech and Dangerous Speech disseminate in social media by examining thousands of comments made by Ethiopians on Facebook during the country’s general election.
Read MoreIn this short report, the Media Diversity Institute offers advice on how to respond to hate speech on Twitter. Tips include: don’t be abusive, build a narrative, and think about your objectives.
Read MoreAbstract: Anecdotal evidence suggests social media are used by individuals and groups wanting to incite hatred and violence, yet the empirical…
Read More‘Saving Sunil – a study of dangerous speech around Facebook page dedicated to Sgt. Sunil Rathnayake’ continues the Centre for…
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This report examines the content of the official Facebook page dedicated to saving Sgt. Sunil Rathnayake, who was, on the 25th of June 2015, sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court for the massacre of 8 civilians in Mirusuvil in 2000. It examines comments over the course of one month after the verdict, which coincided with the campaign period for Sri Lanka’s 2015 elections. Given that context, this report explores how potent the saving Sunil Facebook page is, firstly as an example of online hate and dangerous speech and secondly, as a catalyst for social mobilization.
Read MoreThis UNESCO report provides an overview of hate speech online and studies methods that have been used to counter and…
Read MoreThis book chapter examines the communications practices that developed in Myanmar under authoritarian rule; everyday narratives regarding Islam as they…
Read MoreThis informative Prezi was created by the artist Willow Brugh during a talk Susan Benesch gave called “Troll Wrastling for Beginners” at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
Read More“The growth of online hate speech in Sri Lanka does not guarantee another pogrom. It does however pose a range of other challenges to government and governance around social, ethnic, cultural and religious co-existence, diversity and, ultimately, to the very core of debates around how we see and organise ourselves post-war.” Full report available in English and Sinhala; executive summary also available in Tamil.
Read MoreThis article shows quantitative evidence that propaganda broadcasts by radio stations in Kenya may have had a direct influence on…
Read MoreThis Muslim Advocates report presents examples of the many kinds of anti-Muslim hatred found on the Internet.
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This report by iHub Research presents key findings from the Umati Project, which sought to identify and understand the use of dangerous speech in the Kenyan online space.
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