Earlier this week, Twitter announced a new rule against language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion. This change is a step in the right direction, but in order to truly mitigate offline harms, the company must define dehumanizing speech by its likely effect on others in addition to the literal content of the speech.
Read MoreAustralia’s Parliament rushed to pass a law which would punish social media companies who do not “expeditiously” remove “violent material” from their platforms – a move which could encourage increased censorship.
Read MoreThe DSP is proud to have hosted the First International Counterspeakers’ Workshop, a meeting of people who respond to hateful or harmful speech online – to trade ideas, war stories, and best practices. The event, held in late November in Berlin, drew 15 people from around the world who ‘counterspeak’ online in a wide variety of ways.
Read MoreWhatsApp’s messaging platform has announced several updates, largely in response to a growing problem of Dangerous Speech in India which takes the form of inflammatory rumors spread online and offline.
Read MoreBy referring to immigrants who “pour into and infest our Country,” President Trump has invoked a malevolent vocabulary – one which has striking similarities to rhetoric which has preceded episodes of intergroup violence.
Read MoreOur 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.
Read MoreDSP Executive Director Susan Benesch, J. Nathan Matias of Princeton University, and several other independent researchers launched a collaborative study with Twitter to test whether awareness of the rules affects user behavior.
Read MoreSadly, it’s not new that Donald Trump vilified a group of people with spurious claims from a terrible source: today,…
Read MoreThis article from the Wall Street Journal quotes Susan Benesch, who criticizes a new German law that places strict content regulations on social media companies as an infringement on freedom of expression.
Read MoreThis New York Times Magazine profile of Jonny Sun – a Twitter humorist and fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society – covers his collaboration with our director Susan Benesch on a series of online humor workshops at MIT.
Read MoreThis paper offers reflections and observations on the state of research related to harmful speech online. The perspectives outlined here…
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