The language of the Trump tweet is inflammatory to his followers but ambiguous enough that he can claim it’s harmless. It isn’t. In the four words of his tweet he repeated his false claim that the election was stolen from him, and framed his cause as a righteous war.
Read MoreIt’s vital for influential Americans to publicly correct those dangerous lies and others circulating in our body politic. The deliberate gap left by our national law imposes a civic obligation to practice the only peaceful alternative to criminalizing speech that leads to violence: publicly repudiating it.
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.
Read MoreAlthough Trump remains banned from Facebook and Twitter, Trump-ism is far from gone. The greatest, lasting damage his rhetoric did was not the January 6 riot –- awful as it was — but rather the impression he has left upon so many well-intentioned Americans that he remains a necessary, even God-ordained defender of their faith and values.
Read MoreThe 2020 U.S. election was like nothing we’d seen before for many reasons, including disinformation, dangerous speech, and unprecedented fears of election-related violence. Now it’s time to start thinking about the future.
Read MoreWe’re seeing a worrisome pattern—that of authority figures capitalizing on the public’s need for guidance and security to spread disinformation, including dangerous speech.
Read More“It’s not really hatred that is the most operative emotion regarding dangerous speech, it’s fear. Fear is what makes people turn violently against another group of people more than hatred.”
Read MoreIntentionally associating COVID-19 with Asian communities encourages cruel and ignorant stigmatizing, and distracts people from reliable information about the disease.
Read MoreWNYC’s award-winning show On the Media featured DSP Executive Director Susan Benesch in its October 11, 2019 show on speech in the United States.
Read MoreWhen people describe government policy as evil or even criminal, and then others attack facilities where the policy is carried out, is that Dangerous Speech?
Read MoreGovernments, internet companies, and civil society organizations attempting to prevent the spread of violent white supremacist ideas – and killings – must consider the radicalizing capacity of fear and threat, instead of focusing exclusively on hate speech.
Read More“The fact that he was so much influenced by Breivik reminds us this is not only a domestic American phenomenon or problem, that these sorts of people find each other and influence each other across international borders.”
Read MoreThe Alt-Right’s recent stumbles may look bad for their activists – but their ideas are making headway in the US’ most prominent platforms.
Read MorePresident Donald Trump has routinely used dehumanizing rhetoric, like “dog” and “animal,” to describe people – especially people of color. These words must not be brushed off; they bear the weight of centuries of racist horror.
Read MoreThe window of acceptable politics in America has widened to include what was once unthinkable. White supremacists have taken advantage across the country.
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 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 MoreDr. Anna Szilagyi describes how dehumanizing rhetoric – a key hallmark of Dangerous Speech – affects our thoughts and perceptions, making violence more acceptable.
Read MoreThis six-minute introductory video explains Dangerous Speech and its five elements, with historical and contemporary examples from around the world.
Read MorePresident Trump’s hateful and increasingly dangerous rhetoric has now targeted legal immigrants, describing diversity visa recipients as “the worst of the worst.”
Read MoreOn Thursday, the U.S. government may gut “net neutrality”: the rules that prohibit Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from interfering with…
Read MoreThis 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 MoreSadly, it’s not new that Donald Trump vilified a group of people with spurious claims from a terrible source: today,…
Read MoreGuest blogger Dr. Anna Szilagyi describes how politicians including Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump portray the term “political correctness” as…
Read MoreIn Charlottesville, Americans watched barriers to Dangerous Speech go down in broad daylight, in the middle of a city, as extremists waved swastikas and chanted hateful slogans. Some people are taking matters into their own hands, reaching out to masses of others to identify and punish marchers in the ‘Unite the Right’ rally, but online shaming often goes too far, reaching into a person’s offline life to inflict punishment
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 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 MoreSince U.S. government leaders are failing to denounce xenophobia – and even promoting it by depicting foreigners as dangerous threats…
Read MoreNow that Donald Trump is president, he has an even greater responsibility to denounce hateful speech and violence: some of…
Read MoreAn American neo-Nazi is planning an armed march against “a vicious, evil race of hate-filled psychopaths” – Jews – through Whitefish, Montana in two weeks. It is the latest step in an antisemitic campaign led by Andrew Anglin, founder of the website The Daily Stormer. Anglin chose Whitefish because the family of another far-right activist, Richard Spencer, has been under pressure from local residents including some Jews.
Read MoreAt the Dangerous Speech Project, we are often asked whether President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks constitute Dangerous Speech. Since the United…
Read MoreThis Washington Post article profiles Susan Benesch, director of the Dangerous Speech Project, and explains our work.
Read MoreThis guide offers recommendations for those who wish to engage in counterspeech online, based on the findings of our two year study of hateful speech and counterspeech on Twitter.
Read MoreThis report from our two year study of hateful speech and counterspeech on Twitter reviews existing literature on counterspeech, examines cases of counterspeech through the vector in which it was delivered, and develops a taxonomy of counterspeech strategies.
Read MoreMuch of the world is transfixed at present by Donald Trump’s often insulting and provocative language. But like any speech, it can only be fully understood in context – which now includes remarks more belligerent and shocking than Trump’s, from his supporters who have shouted “Kill her” and “Build the wall – kill them all” at recent Trump rallies, and from other elected officials such as governors of U.S. states.
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