Pic.1 Adobe stock https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/dont-stand-for-hate
Introduction
In this post I am going to focus on online hate speech problem and online harming problem which is the issues I learnt at week 5. On my online experiences, the hates have to come from somewhere, but the bad news is that the hate is easy to share that make more and more toxic comments. In this post, I will start with analyzing the internet governance to showcase what does hate speech impact on and then I will discuss how to stop hate speech.
What is hate speech?
“Speech that attacks a person or a group on the basis of attributes such as race, religion, ethnic origin, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” (STOP Out Bullying, 2022) The hate speech has become a serious problem that we need to do something about because the line between a ‘normal comment’ and hate speech has increasingly blurry nowadays. The hate speech usually bring damage to someone, so this topic is very close to online harm. On my view, hate speech is the start, it is you take the action, and the harassment is the outcome of hate speech. You did not hurt somebody does not mean the toxic comment you sent is not hateful.
There are some common rules and agreements for stopping hate speech and online harm that provide by different online social media platforms. First, social media platform like YouTube is straight forward about sexual content. We understand you want to show off your nice body but ban sexual content can stop sexual harassment comments. In addition, most online social media platforms have agreement about prohibit violent content and hateful content (hate speeches). When users seen these content, they have ability to report these posts to let them get banned. (Most of time) The last and the most dangerous one, is some misleading metadata/information. This information can even spread from some big influencers. Usually, we get know the truth afterwards, but this kind of messages can easily cause you losses. People usually get motivated when losing self-interest.
Pic.2 greenbutterfly/Shutterstock https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/us-democratic-alliance-on-internet-governance-not-yet-clear-for-eu-commission/
Internet governance
I have three concepts about hate speech I want to share. First of all, it is about the ethic problem of influencers and audience that need to control themself. This problem raises quickly because human rights clarify that all humans have freedom doing speech. We all have social responsibility that we need to take response for what we said. secondly, we do not have a law or code to normative poster’s behavior. And the last, the internet is crossing the entire world, so it always international, the racism has become a big problem, the platform need do something to make different group users satisfied.
Can we say what we want to say?
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen announce that the free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man which is encourage people to share their thoughts online about their finding during their life. A thousand readers, have a thousand Hamlet. If we are doing this right, it will build up a good online community.
Nothing is absolute, some streamers and some social media influencers like to see people “fights” because that is going to create content for them. During the fight, some audience will take position to conflict other group with different idea that become streamers and social media influencers’ fans. Very often, streamers and social media influencers themselves represent one side during the combat depending on the public persona they are acting online. That is their ways to attract audiences to become their fans which cannot say it is bad but during the combat, other audiences would get negative effect that been insulted. I personally do not like these fan action (which probably lead by influencers) to became famous online.
Logan Alexander Paul, an American YouTuber, he was involved in a trip to Japan in 2017. Paul and his group were filming the part three of “Tokyo Adventures.” In one of Paul’s videos that he uploads to his YouTube channel, there is a man suicide himself by hanging himself in Aokigahara. He was also criticized for other misbehavior he was captured taking part in during the trip, including climbing onto a moving forklift at the Tsukiji fish market, removing his clothing on a crowded street, then proceeding to fight with one of the people he was traveling with… (dig, 2019)
Pic.3https://twitter.com/YouTuberNews/status/949297972986163200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E949297972986163200%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigg.com%2F2018%2Flogan-paul-offensive-japan-video
The whole video is a hate speech! Paul showed lack of respect for local culture and Disrespect for the dead. This video brings huge impact to YouTube community, the video gained 6.3 million views within 24 hours of being uploaded. That is not a funny joke about death that hurt a lot of audience’s feeling and make his fans get angry. Paul removed the video from his YouTube channel, following up with a written apology on Twitter on January 1, 2018. In fact, that does not stop the influence because some audiences have downloaded that video and reposting it.
This case study shows where most hate speech comes from. People do not think they going to take the social responsibility of what they said online. We are all human; human is very easy to get motivated and the negative energy is also easy to generate and spread by posting or reading hate speech posts. Stop acting you are rational, and these jokes are not funny!
What these Laws and codes do so far?
Social media platform has significant market power in its dealings with news media businesses. It can enhance brand awareness by advertising and other social media services. Social media influencer is a new job raise with the current trend. Different from streamers, they more focus on marketing, and they usually have other jobs rather than just doing this. There are more and more influencers in the social media because it is a “big pie.”
The ANAA’s new code of ethics Section 2.7 requires social media influencers must be clearly distinguish they are doing an advertising. Beyond that, there are very few additional regulations regarding the advertisements shared by influencers.
Jaclyn Hill who is working at YouTube beauty community, and she was launching her own brand lipsticks. Just few weeks after, her fans and customers found out her lipsticks are shoddy goods. Suddenly, Jaclyn Hill Drowned in negative comments, so she decided to delete her Instagram and Twitter accounts and quit internet for about one month.
The first video she post after she come back, “Where I’ve Been,” got over 2.5 million views in under two days. For the matter that the product fails to pass the test she said it was one of the cosmetics labs take the main response and she has completely cut ties with that lab. She given refund for all her customers who purchased the lipstick, regardless of whether they were pleased with their product or not.
I can see she hopes to sell badly to get the audience’s forgiveness. In this “Where I’ve Been” video I cannot tell if she is really crying or not, since this video looks like a publicity stunt for me. This video is putting herself in a victim side because this hate speech on her social media accounts hurting Hill and forcing her to quit. The more closely respondents followed certain influencers, the less forgiving they were of those who might market bad merchandise. A closer relationship to influencers online made users more likely to say they should be held responsible regardless of the circumstances. (Influence, 2022)
By analyzing this case study, the laws and regulations we had is not comprehensive enough. To stop this kind of case, we need to platform jump in and normative speech and also have more codes about influencers. Jaclyn Hill will get the punishment her deserve, but not hate speech on her social media. These hate speeches cannot solve any problem, it is only going to build up the conflict and hurting people.
Pic.4 ‘All lives should matter, yes. But they won’t until black lives do.’ Composite: Getty Images https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/aug/16/sophie-williams-no-one-gets-a-free-pass-on-racism
Are social media platforms guilty?
Social media platforms are under increasing public scrutiny because of inconsistencies in how they apply their policies with respect to cultural difference and hate speech. (Matamoros-Fernández, 2016) Nowadays, the threshold of Internet access is gradually reduced. The social media platforms absorb people from different backgrounds, and the social media platforms have responsibility to make sure the community is comfort for everyone.
The truth is, eliminate contradictions is a complex and on-going field of research. The first reason is different social media have different kind if audience they mainly target on, this group of people usually get satisfied first because they are the basic user. The social media platform has the power to stop the conflict, but most of the time, they choose to turn a blind eye. For example, the c ore user of Reddit.com are white young male group. So, when Reddit become a hub for anti-feminist activism, Reddit administrators refuse to solve this problem because that would affect their core users and it leads to less traffic, ultimately less revenue for Reddit. Beyond the social media, they are companies that making money out of it.
Same problem for Facebook, “And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money … The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.” (Frances Haugen, testimony before U.S. Congress, 4 Oct. 2021) Adam Goodes was forced to take time off from the game, until he quietly retired in September 2015. Whiteness created Facebook pages to vilify him, and they ridicule Goodes on Twitter. And during this ‘platformed racism,’ Facebook did not take any action to stop any hate speeches.
How to stop hate speech?
This is a hard question for a student because we do not have large influence that can bring power and fight back, but We cannot let people celebrate racism, misogyny, homophobia, Islamophobia, and white nationalism under the banner of free speech. (Civil and Human Rights News, 2017)
- We can learn from these case studies and get educated in class, as more we understand what is hate speech, it comes easier for you do deal with it when you are facing it.
- Report these hate speech to the social media platform to let the platform knows this problem. Let them take action to protect you.
- Do not hide the problem to yourself, find your friends or family to talk with. Asking them for help. The hate speech could translate into violent actions offline if you exposed.
- Go read some positive comments. Just do not read these negative messages.
- When you seen other people get hateful comments, show your support to the victim, leave some positive comments to encourage him/her to go through this hard time.
Conclusion
Currently, we have no concrete law that addresses or prevents hate speech. Sometimes the law may get involved if the hate speech is perceived as a genuine threat to harm. However, just because it isn’t technically considered a crime, that doesn’t mean that hate speech doesn’t influence society. So, the online hate speech is still an on-going field. We are looking forward government to issue more codes and laws to protect users. We need more ethic codes to administrate users, influencers, fans and the social media platform.
Reference
Alice, K. (2021) Hate Speech: Don’t stand for hate https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/dont-stand-for-hate
Bonilla, Y., & Rosa, J. (2015). #Ferguson: Digital protest, hashtag ethnography, and the racial politics of social media in the United States. American Ethnologist, 42(1), 4–17. https://anthrosource-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/doi/full/10.1111/amet.12112
Civil and Human Rights News (2017) Online Hate Speech is Pervasive. Here’s How to Start Combating it. https://civilrights.org/edfund/resource/combat-online-hate-speech/
Digg (2018) Before Logan Paul Uploaded The Suicide Video, He Was Already Doing Many Offensive Things In Japan https://digg.com/2018/logan-paul-offensive-japan-video
Influence (2022) Ethics & Influencers: Exploring Influencers and the Ethics Behind Their Sharing https://influence.co/go/content/influencer-ethics
Jaclyn, H. (2019) Where I’ve Been https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7-brN0qCqI
Kaitlyn, F. (2019) Jaclyn Hill Refunds All Customers for Lipstick Purchases After Contamination Complaints https://people.com/style/jaclyn-hill-refunds-customers-for-lipsticks-after-complaints/
Lipschultz, J. H. (2021). Law and Regulation. Social Media Communication: Concepts, Practices, Data, Law and Ethics (pp.223 –262). New York: Routledge. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/lib/usyd/reader.action?docID=4902611
Luca, B. (2021) US democratic alliance on internet governance ‘not yet clear’ for EU Commission https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/us-democratic-alliance-on-internet-governance-not-yet-clear-for-eu-commission/
Massanari, Adrienne (2017) #Gamergate and The Fappening: How Reddit’s algorithm, governance, and culture support toxic technocultures. New Media & Society, 19(3): 329–346. https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/doi/full/10.1177/1461444815608807
Matatoros-Fernandez, A. (2017). Platformed racism: the mediation and circulation of an Australian race-based controversy on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Information, Communication & Society 20(6), pp. 930-946. https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1293130
Mikayla, G (2019) Jaclyn Hill Says Her Lipstick Launch ‘Failed’ as She Returns to YouTube After a Month Hiatus https://people.com/style/jaclyn-hill-returns-to-youtube-calls-lipstick-launch-failure/
Naganna, C. & Sreejith, A. (2018) Aggression and Violent Behavior: Hate speech review in the context of online social networks Volume 40 (pp.108-118) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359178917301064
Nest (2022) How can we combat the rise of online hate speech? https://www.latrobe.edu.au/nest/can-combat-rise-online-hate-speech/
Roberts, Sarah T. (2019) Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 33-72. https://www-degruyter-com.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/document/doi/10.12987/9780300245318-003/html
Sophie, W. (2020) Sophie Williams: ‘No one gets a free pass on racism’ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/aug/16/sophie-williams-no-one-gets-a-free-pass-on-racism
STOMP Out Bullying (2022) What We Can Do About Hate Speech https://www.stompoutbullying.org/blog/hate-speech
YouTuber News by PopBuzz (2018) Turns out, Logan Paul’s trip to Japan was problematic for many reasons https://twitter.com/YouTuberNews/status/949297972986163200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E949297972986163200%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigg.com%2F2018%2Flogan-paul-offensive-japan-video