How does the online hate ecosystem persist on social-media platforms, and what measures can be taken to effectively reduce its presence? Writing in Nature, Johnson et al.1 address these questions in a captivating report on the behaviour of online hate communities that reside on multiple social-media platforms. The authors shed light on the structure and dynamics of online hate groups and, informed by the results, propose four policies to reduce hate content on online social media.
We live in an age of high social interconnectedness, whereby opinions shared in one geographical region do not remain spatially localized, but can spread rapidly around the globe thanks to online social media.