I know firsthand that we all have so much we can bring to these big challenges, so see where you fit in the solution as we undesign the concept of onl

S1.E1: How does counterspeech prevent online extremism?

submited by

Style Pass

2021-06-08 04:00:10

I know firsthand that we all have so much we can bring to these big challenges, so see where you fit in the solution as we undesign the concept of online extremism and counterspeech.

It’s safe to say we have all been digital witnesses to some pretty troubling things in our social media feeds, even without looking for them. For all of the good that the internet seemed to promise at the beginning, the bad and the ugly are becoming all too easy to find without meaning to. How often have you scrolled past:

And these are merely in addition to all of the concerning behavior we don’t see in our feeds… like how terrorist groups use social media and gaming platforms both for recruitment drives and operational purposes.

Not only does this pose a risk in the most obvious sense, but what about the risks to our psychological well-being that come from constantly being exposed to that?

So what do we do? Censor? Demonetise? Deplatform? Moderate? Fix the dreaded “algorithms”? What happens when we actually engage with what is being said, aka counterspeech?