Hate speech. It has been a topic that has gained popularity, especially over the past several years as politics infiltrate social media and the political climate has become more and more intense. Everyone has a different definition of hate speech, but the consequences of hate speech are the same: there are no consequences because the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently and repeatedly ruled that hate speech is legally protected under the First Amendment. People are allowed to freely spew hatred because it is their right as an American citizen who has freedom of speech. This has created issues for journalists who are also protected under the First Amendment but must ethically cover these topics of hate speech and hate crimes across the U.S.
Hate Speech and Social Media
Over the years, the prevalence of hate speech has spiked due to the rise of social media platforms that provide a place for people to produce content that is often anti-Semitic, racist, sexist, homophobic, or islamophobic. Not only are these platforms providing a place, but they are also maintaining and sustaining these areas of hate. According to USA TODAY, "The research showed that hate groups collected more 'likes' to tweets and comments in 2016 than in any other year since 2008. From 2014 and 2015, the number of 'likes' on hate group tweets and comments tripled, and from 2015 to 2016 they tripled again." Due to this protection of hate speech, these organizations have been able to connect and share ideologies without any repercussions for the violence that has been incited because these groups are allowed to thrive on social media. It was when social media sites and platforms started to look directly at the power of these hate groups and hate speech on their platforms after the attack that happened in Charlottesville.
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| Illustration by Mars Dorian |
Covering Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Ethically
Charlottesville had an immense impact on how journalists should similar cover events and how social media platforms go about censorship. According to the New York Times: "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." Which is great right? Well, throwing money and resources towards banning content will help to mitigate the ability that extremists will have to connect and share ideas, but this will not help the way that the country understands and covers hate crimes. Thankfully, companies and news organizations like ProPublica, who wish to cover these stories ethically have created a space for other organizations to learn about covering hate crimes after doing research about the past coverage of such events. ProPublica has discovered that hate crimes were just not being covered therefore the impact of hate speech online was going unnoticed. They have created a coalition of over 130 newsrooms to cover the hate crimes that are happening every day on college campuses and in most public spaces. Since then, they have seen an increase in not only coverage of hate crimes, but also the procedural policies for police when they report hate crimes. with I can tell we are moving in the right direction slowly but surely thanks to organizations who are pushing to create a safer future.
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