An educational approach to detect, combat and prevent online hate speech
Main objective of the EducHate project
The EducHate project aims to increase citizens' self-awareness and moral self-regulation to detect and combat online hate speech and support victims. Specifically, it aims to intervene in educational contexts, being directed to social actors of schools and universities (teachers, students, parents), and is based on a participatory pedagogical approach. EducHate encourages the creation of groups of ambassadors against hate in these contexts, which will be able to: 1) diagnose blatant and subtle online hate speech; 2) develop individual (empathy, moral) and social (social and civic responsibility) skills to combat hate speech; e 3) support the development of anti-hate social contexts. This project aims to use digital materials, online activities and focus on the experience that project participants have with online hate speech in their contexts and networks.
Social relevance of the EducHate project
Automatic online hate speech detection tools often contain glossaries and lexicons based on blatant hate language, without filtering subtle messages of hate content (e.g., hate sarcasm, micro-aggression, dehumanization). Furthermore, existing control mechanisms to combat hate speech are consensually considered ineffective. Additionally, research shows that online contexts can be problematic for controlling misbehavior. In online interactions, people tend to have higher levels of disinhibition, deceptive behavior, lack of empathy, and moral disengagement than in face-to-face interactions. We see online hate speech increasing while existing tools to combat it seem to fail. In addition to this already serious phenomenon, the COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated its incidence. The increase in online interactions during the pandemic intensified online hate speech (and other types of misbehavior), as well as contributed to the emergence of new targets of hate speech (e.g., Chinese accused of being blamed for the pandemic, and politicians and scientists being accused and insulted for being incompetent in controlling the pandemic). Most intervention projects and programs to prevent and combat online hate speech focus on victims - to encourage them to report – or on offenders - to discourage them from such practices. However, little (or no) attention has been paid to bystanders, that is, to those who, passively or not, witness online misbehavior. By failing to report online hate speech, citizens are contributing indirectly to legitimizing and perpetuating its occurrence and to the misuse of social networks, since "silence consents". In fact, such passive or non-interventionist bystander’ behavior may represent, by itself, an indirect, but no less consequential, discriminatory practice against groups socially vulnerable to discrimination.
The project involves:
EducHate begins with the assemblage of a multidisciplinary team (EducHate team), composed of the current intervention team and volunteer students. This team will be located and will intervene at the University of Porto, and will support the creation of 3 teams of "Ambassadors against hate" (composed by teachers, students and parents) who will implement the program in their local school. We have chosen 1 grouping of primary/secondary schools, but it is intended to extend their scope of intervention to more schools. This work is planned to be developed through online activities and digital materials. In a first stage, ambassadors will learn how to detect blatant and subtle hate speech and how to report them; how to support victims (through online courses, participatory training sessions, dilemma games, debates and workshops); and how to plan school intervention programs. Ambassadors will then implement local intervention programs, campaigns, blogs, activities, debates in their schools and work with their peers to combat online hate speech. At the same time, school principals will be invited to participate in the creation of a charter of principles against hate, to strengthen anti-discrimination standards at school and to promote an anti-discrimination institutional identity. While these ambassadors are expected to become progressively autonomous, the EducHate team will develop a monitoring process in cooperation with schools to evaluate the program and support them when needed.
