The dark side of social media: From expression and perception to response and mitigation of intolerant and abusive content online

While intolerant, abusive and hate speech are not new phenomena, they have been limited to specific off-line and local contexts until the advent of new communication technologies the anonymity and instantaneity of which,... [ view full abstract ]

While intolerant, abusive and hate speech are not new phenomena, they have been limited to specific off-line and local contexts until the advent of new communication technologies the anonymity and instantaneity of which, coupled with its ever-growing importance as a source of information and communication, have given them an unprecedented boost and a global dimension. Because of this, new interdisciplinary theoretical and analytical methods and approaches are needed to improve our understanding of the shifting patterns of such practices in different parts of the world, with a particular focus on tackling its proliferation in the new media and radicalisation of online space in the contemporary, increasingly multicultural information society.

The aim of this colloquium is to give an overview of these phenomena as well as research and legal practices in Europe, USA, Japan and New Zealand in order to address the specific issues pertaining to the propagation of intolerant, abusive and hate content in the new media and to contribute to a better understanding thereof as well as to devise strategies for their containment and mitigation. The papers presented at the colloquium tackle a wide range of topics and on-line platforms, such as nationalist discourse on an on-line forum of white supremacy groups or explicitly and implicitly abusive discourse against the LGBTQ+ community of Twitter. The authors use a rich set of methodological frameworks, ranging from discourse-historical approaches to discourse studies to machine learning. The colloquium also offers a comprehensive legal analysis and recommendations for an improved treatment of hate speech in the new era from 10 EU countries as well as a contribution on hate speech that spills over the virtual world and enters the real-world streets.