How hatred spreads on the Internet


August 23, 2019

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This article was translated from German

The so-called social media are often quite anti-social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Co don't just spread false rumors and other fake news; the channels are also used for the dissemination of extremist worldviews and flooded with hate. In the past few months, this escalation of words has repeatedly turned into terrorist acts, just think of the attacks in El Paso, Orlando, Portland or Christchurch.

Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have long since started to block the distribution of such content and relevant hate preachers. However, blocking racist and anti-Semitic groups usually proves to be inefficient, since the groups reappear a short time later under a new name. There are also forums like 8chan that are difficult to control.

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