Hiding Behind A Screen

Cassidy Wilson 

Cassidyleighhh@gmail.com 

 

Social media is a platform that many use to express their opinions, keep in contact with others and stay up to date on information. However, social media is also a way to hide behind a screen and not be held accountable for what you post. It is truly sad to see the amount of hate speech that is in our world today. If people were making these comments in person, directly to someone's face, chances are it would be a very different situation.

In a New York Times article titled, "On Instagram, 11,696 Examples of How Hate Thrives on Social Media," it is evident that social media enables hate speech. Not only does hate speech thrive on social media, but it has been a large part of the 2020 election. Hate speech is a way for political candidates to bash each other in order to make themselves look better. I do not believe that the person we vote in to office should act like that and stoop to such a low level. There are many other ways to establish credibility and gain power other than using hate speech. Within the past year, we have seen a rise in hate speech, leading to hate crime. In an article by ProPublica titled, "What We Discovered During A Year of Documenting Hate," I learned that many police officers get little to no training on how to handle hate crimes. Only 12 states have statutes requiring this type of instruction at police academies. I found this to be extremely shocking considering what has gone on within the past year in our world. Hopefully more police academies will require more instruction on hate crime in order to learn how to deal with various situations. 

Another place where hate crime is often used is through racial disputes. There have been extreme white supremacy groups that are violently racist. It is 2020 and it is absolutely ridiculous that there are still people out there with these awful, racist mindsets. In 2017 there were three active KKK groups formed within the year. Groups like this thrive off of hate speech and it needs to be addressed more often. This leads into the question of how should journalists handle racist words, images and violence. 

As a journalist it is difficult to report what is happening, while trying not to glorify these groups and give them the attention they want. Personally, as a journalist, I would try my best to describe what was going on rather than include awful images of the flags and what these hate groups represent. All in all, covering hate speech is something that will unfortunately be around forever.

Hopefully, social media will develop better policies for those hiding behind their screen and we will see less of this awful behavior on the Internet.