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posted by chromas on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the internet-hate-machine dept.

Researchers propose a new approach for dismantling online hate networks

How do you get rid of hate speech on social platforms? Until now, companies have generally tried two approaches. One is to ban individual users who are caught posting abuse; the other is to ban the large pages and groups where people who practice hate speech organize and promote their noxious views.

But what if this approach is counterproductive? That's the argument in an intriguing new paper out today in Nature from Neil Johnson, a professor of physics at George Washington University, and researchers at GW and the University of Miami. The paper, "Hidden resilience and adaptive dynamics of the global online hate ecology," explores how hate groups organize on Facebook and Russian social network VKontakte — and how they resurrect themselves after platforms ban them.

As Noemi Derzsy writes in her summary in Nature:

Johnson et al. show that online hate groups are organized in highly resilient clusters. The users in these clusters are not geographically localized, but are globally interconnected by 'highways' that facilitate the spread of online hate across different countries, continents and languages. When these clusters are attacked — for example, when hate groups are removed by social-media platform administrators (Fig. 1) — the clusters rapidly rewire and repair themselves, and strong bonds are made between clusters, formed by users shared between them, analogous to covalent chemical bonds. In some cases, two or more small clusters can even merge to form a large cluster, in a process the authors liken to the fusion of two atomic nuclei. Using their mathematical model, the authors demonstrated that banning hate content on a single platform aggravates online hate ecosystems and promotes the creation of clusters that are not detectable by platform policing (which the authors call 'dark pools'), where hate content can thrive unchecked.

[...] The researchers advocate a four-step approach to reduce the influence of hate networks.

  1. Identify smaller, more isolated clusters of hate speech and ban those users instead.
  2. Instead of wiping out entire small clusters, ban small samples from each cluster at random. This would theoretically weaken the cluster over time without inflaming the entire hive.
  3. Recruit users opposed to hate speech to engage with members of the larger hate clusters directly. (The authors explain: "In our data, some white supremacists call for a unified Europe under a Hitler-like regime, and others oppose a united Europe. Similar in-fighting exists between hate-clusters of the KKK movement. Adding a third population in a pre-engineered format then allows the hate-cluster extinction time to be manipulated globally.)
  4. Identify hate groups with competing views and pit them against one another, in an effort to sow doubt in the minds of participants.

Hidden resilience and adaptive dynamics of the global online hate ecology[$], Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1494-7)


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  • (Score: 4, Troll) by VLM on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:09PM (14 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:09PM (#886157)

    and it involves telling fascists to shut the fuck up.

    And carefully and methodically redefining fascist to mean, white, or male, or Christian, or straight, or pretty much any group that built western civilization.

    Remember, by "hate group" they mean groups that don't hate white people enough. They aren't fighting against hate, but fighting against not enough hate. Nothing to do with defunct political parties from the last century or supremacy or any of that.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Extra 'Troll' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by ikanreed on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:15PM (10 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:15PM (#886160) Journal

    Shut the fuck up.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:26PM (5 children)

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:26PM (#886173)

      Made my point perfectly. One side has no weapons left in the debate except civil repression, attacks, and violence.

      The new right is vibrant with fresh ideas and discussion, so the obvious subversive attack is censorship.

      In comparison, there's no point in trying to censor the left, that side is intellectually vacant at this point. What passes for discourse is virtue signalling.

      • (Score: 0, Redundant) by ikanreed on Tuesday August 27 2019, @05:10PM

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 27 2019, @05:10PM (#886209) Journal

        Counterpoint: shut the fuck up

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @05:11PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @05:11PM (#886211)

        "The new right is vibrant with fresh ideas and discussion...."

        HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

        • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @05:24PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @05:24PM (#886226)

          COunterpoint: shut the fuck up

      • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday August 27 2019, @06:49PM

        by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 27 2019, @06:49PM (#886300)

        Vibrant with fresh ideas and discussion? Please, elaborate.

        --
        The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
      • (Score: 1, Funny) by aristarchus on Tuesday August 27 2019, @08:01PM

        by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday August 27 2019, @08:01PM (#886341) Journal

        VLM: Shut the fuck up. We have debated you enough to realize you are racist nazi scum that cannot be reasoned with. So shut the fuck up.

    • (Score: 1) by Acabatag on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:38PM

      by Acabatag (2885) on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:38PM (#886180)

      There's the answer. Clear as a bell.

    • (Score: 2, Troll) by jmorris on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:47PM (1 child)

      by jmorris (4844) on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:47PM (#886188)

      "Shut up!, he explained.

      Dude, you are a one man wrecking crew for your own side. Almost makes me think you are one of our guys running disinfo, if so you need to dial it back because you are being a bit too obvious.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Tuesday August 27 2019, @05:13PM

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 27 2019, @05:13PM (#886212) Journal

        "you're so mean to us just because we want to kill people boohoo, so mean"

        You're scum and I don't really care about your fantasies of having intellectual points.

    • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday August 27 2019, @06:52PM

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday August 27 2019, @06:52PM (#886305) Journal

      Damn! I tried to mod you "Funny" but the haters prevailed...

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @06:32PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @06:32PM (#886289)

    I really can't think of a more oppressed group than white heterosexual Christian males. Nice identity politics, bro!

    • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @08:28PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @08:28PM (#886362)

      In 2019, this is true. Nobody is actually oppressed anymore, but minorities/women/trannies get preferred hiring and promotion based on their woke victimhood status.

      • (Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Tuesday August 27 2019, @08:56PM

        by jmorris (4844) on Tuesday August 27 2019, @08:56PM (#886392)

        Right, nobody is oppressed, nobody is forced to sit at the back of the bus. We just seat non-whites, women, LGBTPPQ++, non-Christians, etc. first, starting at the front of the bus... and if there are any seats left the horrid icky mouth breathing rabble can sit at the back, if they promise not to say anything.