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Dismantling Online Hate Networks

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/researchers-model-online-hate-networks-in-effort-to-battle-them/

 

For those who are at least moderately active on social media, the controversy that exists over free-speech and content regulation is no foreign concept, especially on Facebook where a spectrum of hate groups exist, even with the restrictions and regulations currently in place. In the article “Researchers Model Online Hate Networks in Effort to Battle Them” by David Noonan,  Noonan presents a multitude of ideas that have recently been studied by researchers at the University of George Washington on how hate networks can be combated. One of the key problems in the efforts being made to regulate hate networks on Facebook, is that hate groups are able to bypass regulating algorithms by using different languages, migrating to different groups, etc, as demonstrated with the repopulation of a Ukrainian KKK group after it was banned. 

 

One proposed method of combatting hate groups online is to cut off individual members who are part of the network, rather than targeting public leaders of a network. Not only does this prevent more members uniting behind the martyrdom of a leader, but it can prevent the formation of local bridges between various networks. As researcher Neil Johnson points out, hate networks on the internet span a vast range not only in geography of those in the network, but on the topics in which hate is expressed– “They jump continents, they jump cultures, they jump languages…We see ‘Franco nationalists’ in Spain connecting with ‘lovers of Aryan women’ in Nordic Countries, then immediately flipping back to Virginia, where they’re talking about militia groups.” Because individuals serve as bridges that connect hate groups, which were once geographically isolated from each other, by regulating their internet posting, bridges that link two “separate components” disappear, thus eliminating the “strength of a weak tie” over the internet. One of the most effective ways to prevent hate groups from forming/continuously regenerating is by preventing the ways that they form. As discussed in class, networks evolve in triangles (Triadic Closure Principle). Another way to combat hate networks is through the creation of artificial antihate groups. Through the creation of artificial antihate groups on the internet, genuine antihate networks are more likely to form.

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