Analyzing and monitoring hate speech in South Sudan

Since even before violence broke out in December 2013, South Sudanese have warned of the dangers of hateful and dangerous speech as a catalyst for violent conflict – and yet as diaspora communities worldwide are increasingly using social media to air their grievances, they often do so using inflammatory speech and images.

In response, PeaceTech Lab developed a project to help identify, monitor, and counter hate speech in South Sudan. Their efforts consist of three parts: developing a “lexicon” of hateful language commonly used in the South Sudanese context; providing software tools to visualize influence networks and historical data on the use of hateful terms; and engaging on the ground with different groups of South Sudanese to validate their research and discuss how online speech influences real-world violence.

Learn more about their efforts and explore their data at the Open Situation Room Exchange.