Seek Out the Hate

Maureen O'Brien

mb163416@ohio.edu

Where does the line between freedom of speech and hate speech become blurred? According to Merriam-Webster, hate speech is "speech that is intended to insult, offend, or intimidate a person because of some trait (as race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or disability)." With that definition in mind, it would be difficult to ignore the examples that one might see on social media every day. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have community guidelines that attempt to prevent people's words from spreading hateful messages and, via Facebook Community Standards, inciting "real-world violence."

Graphic obtained from https://www.dw.com/en/eu-social-media-companies-accelerate-hate-speech-removals-in-self-regulation-push/a-42222597 

Who should be burdened with the responsibility of upholding users to the guidelines standards they agree to when they create their account? There are vigilant users who report the toxic language and posts they come across, but there has to be a more thorough and direct way to ensure that social media shuts down hate speech while not infringing upon freedom of speech. 

An article in the New York Times stated that, "Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have all announced plans to invest heavily in artificial intelligence and other technology aimed at finding and removing unwanted content from their sites." These social media giants recognize their responsibility to their users to generate a community that will not accelerate bigotry, intimidation or otherwise hateful behavior. The guidelines that they set for their users are not an attempt to limit personal opinion, but to prevent creating an environment where people are allowed to so blatantly discriminate. 

Until social media platforms obtain the ability to seek out and ban hateful speech and other content, the job of social justice warrior falls on the shoulders of every user. It's imperative to remove hate speech from social media because nothing is more important than ensuring the safety of everyone who uses the platforms. Companies must be held accountable for upholding their users to the guidelines they have set for appropriate content, and while most agree that wide opinions are encouraged, a line must be drawn. Hate speech is not free speech, and left unchecked, it can do immeasurable harm and normalize offensive behavior.