Technology

39528 readers

319 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

alyaza@beehaw.org

TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org

gyrfalcon@beehaw.org

rs5th@beehaw.org

coldredlight@beehaw.org

SemioticStandard@beehaw.org

TheRtRevKaiser@kbin.social

remington@beehaw.org

Researchers Develop Online Hate Speech “Shockwave” Formula (web.archive.org)

submitted 2 years ago by 0x815@feddit.de to c/technology@beehaw.org

1 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A George Washington University research team created a novel formula that demonstrates how, why, and when hate speech spreads throughout social media. They found that hate speech ripples through online communities in a pattern that non-hateful content typically does not follow. Researchers hope the formula can serve as a tool for moderators to project the shockwave-like spread of hateful content and develop methods to delay, divert, and prevent it from spiraling out of control.

Here is the study (trigger warning: maths): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364771702_Shockwaves_and_turbulence_across_social_media

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] 108beads@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

Fascinating stuff, although I do not pretend to grok the maths.

On the one hand, seems to offer formulaic approach to creating effective interventions to curb online hate-speech. A more functional approach than hand-wringing, and more effective than "thoughts and prayers" platitudes following IRL consequences of hate-speech.

On the other hand, who decides what is undesirable hate speech? For instance, I could see both of the US abortion debate "sides" (yes, I know, there are more than two) claiming the other is wrong, is promoting hate or harm. Each side might feel itself justified seeking to intervene to prevent spread of an ideology.