{"id":1408,"date":"2021-11-06T15:07:33","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T15:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/?p=1408"},"modified":"2021-12-02T11:13:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T11:13:16","slug":"leaders-of-tomorrow-urge-social-media-companies-to-fight-hate-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/leaders-of-tomorrow-urge-social-media-companies-to-fight-hate-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders of Tomorrow Urge Social Media Companies to Fight Hate Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Respondents surveyed for this year\u2019s Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow Report take a clear position against unlimited freedom of speech on the Internet. They recommend restrictions against hate speech and fake news and emphasize the responsibility of social media companies.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

While individual freedom has always been a heavily debated topic, rapidly emerging technologies have raised completely new issues. The tension between freedom and digital technologies has many faces. Nobody would deny that the Internet enables communication across the globe without boundaries of time and distance and thus extends individual freedom. The list of benefits is long: circumvention of state censorship, citizen journalism, access to information and education for all, whistleblowing, availability of scientific data and general open-source content are important examples. In addition, everyone has the opportunity to be read by many other people and thus to become a potential \u201cmass medium\u201d, which was previously reserved for \u201cofficial\u201d media organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a double-edged sword: It also enables destructive forces, malevolent entities or individuals to post extremist propaganda, child pornography, live streaming of attacks and massacres, bullying, lies and hatred \u2013 shielded by the comfortable anonymity of the Internet. While criminal actions can be prosecuted by law, the general regulation of freedom of speech on the Internet is a controversial issue. Where should the boundaries of freedom of speech on the Internet be drawn?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The almost 900 respondents surveyed for this year\u2019s Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow Report \u2013 a collaboration of the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions and the St. Gallen Symposium \u2013 take a clear position against unlimited freedom of speech on the Internet and clearly recommend restrictions against hate speech and fake news. Paradoxically, to preserve the freedom of the digital sphere, freedom may need to be restricted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women view the limiting of hate speech as particularly favorable. They agree more strongly than men with the statement that the freedom of the Internet should be restricted to prevent it (81% agreement by women vs. 72% by men), while there is no striking difference to men regarding the statement about fake news (75% agreement by women vs. 73% by men). One reason for the gender difference may be that hate speech is not only more prevalent against women, it also frequently takes the form of sexual harassment, as summarized in a recent report published by the European Parliament (Wilk, 2018<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A variety of measures against malevolent behavior on the Internet are currently discussed in the media, and all raise considerable controversy. Which of them would the Leaders of Tomorrow be willing to accept in order to prevent the abuse of freedom on the Internet? They see social media companies in particular as responsible for curtailing malevolent behavior. Almost 90% say that it is at least acceptable to have social media companies censor abusive and fake content, and more than 80% would even make them accountable for it. So the majority thinks that platforms that until now have often taken a \u201chands off\u201d approach, rejecting content filtering by claiming they are \u201cjust the messenger\u201d, should instead be obliged to prevent and to censor hate speech and fake news on the Internet. While such demands are not new, they come from an unusual corner: Digital Natives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Compared to their clear position on the responsibility of social media companies, the Leaders of Tomorrow are more reserved about a general ban of political advertising in social media: 63% consider such a ban \u2013 as recently announced by Twitter (Kelly, 2019<\/a>) \u2013 at least acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only the option of revoking the possibility of online anonymity receives less acceptance. In some regions of the world, revealing identities would have serious and dangerous consequences, be it due to censorship of free speech, persecution of sexual orientation or gender identity, or believing in the \u201cwrong\u201d \u2013 or perhaps no \u2013 deity. When online anonymity is threatened by new legislation, Internet activists regularly jump to its defense \u2013 so passionately that such conflicts have been labeled \u201cNymwars\u201d (e.g., York, 2011<\/a>). Nevertheless, 60% of the Leaders of Tomorrow consider abandoning online anonymity to increase individual accountability at least acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow Report here<\/a>\u00a0for all findings and detailed analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Respondents surveyed for this year\u2019s Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow Report take a clear position against unlimited freedom of speech on the Internet. They recommend restrictions against hate speech and fake news and emphasize the responsibility of social media companies. While individual freedom has always been a heavily debated topic, rapidly emerging technologies have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[45],"class_list":["post-1408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16.jpg",1500,844,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"xl":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16.jpg",1500,844,false],"xxl":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16.jpg",1500,844,false],"xxxl":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16.jpg",1500,844,false],"xxxxl":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16.jpg",1500,844,false],"xxxxxl":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16.jpg",1500,844,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16.jpg",1500,844,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/jon-tyson-IYtVtgXw72M-unsplash-16.jpg",1500,844,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"

Respondents surveyed for this year\u2019s Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow Report take a clear position against unlimited freedom of speech on the Internet. They recommend restrictions against hate speech and fake news and emphasize the responsibility of social media companies. While individual freedom has always been a heavily debated topic, rapidly emerging technologies have raised completely new issues. The tension between freedom and digital technologies has many faces. Nobody would deny that the Internet enables communication across the globe without boundaries of time and distance and thus extends individual freedom. The list of benefits is long: circumvention of state…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"INSIGHTS<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"wordpress@weitblick-online.ch","url":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/author\/wordpressweitblick-online-ch\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","authors":[{"term_id":45,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"claudia-gaspar-anja-dieckmann-andreas-neus","display_name":"Claudia Gaspar, Anja Dieckmann, Andreas Neus","avatar_url":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/gravatars\/762b22de4bf1bf3924204e9b02554eaa","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1408"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3184,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408\/revisions\/3184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1408"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}