Tag: Hate speech

Combatting Hate and “Dangerous” Speech

On By Carolyn M. AppletonIn Caravan Studios, diplomacy, ethics, Hate speech, Internet, moral behavior, positive thinking, Primary Articles, problem solving2 Comments

For the past few years, I was the lead volunteer organizer for Nonprofit Tech Club Austin, part of TechSoup Connect (2015-2021). The club affiliates with NTEN: Nonprofit Technology Network, TechSoup, and locally, startup incubator Capital Factory. This means our “reach” has local, national and global.

One benefit of our partnership with TechSoup specifically is we learn about inspiring new ideas from other tech club chapters, as well as from TechSoup and its divisions like Caravan Studios and the Public Good App House. A 2019 webinar on hate speech and those monitoring it globally was particularly eye opening. This post shares information presented during that program as well as additional discussions and resources I have since discovered.

This post was written in 2019 and it has become one of my most-read. I continue to update it as more information becomes available. One new discovery is the Dangerous Speech Project. They sum the problem up well:

“People don’t commit violence against other groups – or even condone it – spontaneously. First they must be taught to see other people as pests, vermin, aliens, or threats. Malicious leaders often use the same types of rhetoric to do this, in myriad cultures, languages, countries, and historical periods. We call this Dangerous Speech. Violence might be prevented by making it less abundant or less convincing.

Only a few years ago, I believed the United States was more egalitarian and tolerant than ever. I did not see racism in Texas, and mostly witnessed an ever-growing appreciation for differences in terms of culture and ethnicity. In fact, since returning to Austin in 2013, I was impressed by the new monuments on the Texas State Capitol grounds, including the stately Tejano and African American History installations. They are well worth a visit.

But in 2016, an eruption of hateful speech at the national level occurred from which I am still reeling. It was like a long dormant volcano had erupted, causing an international avalanche of hateful speech and behavior. This led me to seek solutions about how to combat hate in the context of the nonprofit sector.

Combatting Hate Speech

I was encouraged to learn the Council of Foundations launched a program in 2020 aimed at alleviating hateful behavior (and funding). “In late 2020, the Council on Foundations (the Council) launched the Values-Aligned Philanthropy project to continue to build on their previous efforts within the philanthropic sector to respond to growing concern about the issue of funding hate and extremism.” Follow the link above to read more and download a recent report.

The United Sates Department of Justice has a relatively new webpage that includes a link, “Get Help Now.” Visit the website often for periodic updates about hate, and actions taken to deal with hateful actions and hate crimes. Keep up the good work!

The following are also working to identify, monitor and to develop ways to combat dangerous rhetoric around the world. Visit them online and support their work.

PeaceTech Lab

We believe everyone has the power of peacetech so we leverage low-cost, easy-to-use tech and local partnerships to put the right tools in the hands of the people best positioned to make a difference: activists, peacebuilders, and NGOs in some of the most violent places on earth.

Hatebase

Hatebase is a software platform built to help organizations and online communities detect, monitor and quarantine hate speech. Our algorithms analyze public conversations using a broad vocabulary based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and class, with data across 80+ languages and 200+ countries.

Metamorphosis Foundation

The Metamorphosis Foundation offers IT solutions, developed according to the needs of the clients or as part of the project. At the same time, we offer favorable and quality services for development, adaptation, localization and updating of web content.

Additional Links

  • Council on Foundations via Independent Sector, “Values-Aligned Philanthropy for Community Foundations” (2022). “Through our Values-Aligned Philanthropy project, the Council on Foundations is encouraging foundations to take steps to ensure that they are not funding hate. Our white paper created a landscape scan of the issue and the work being done in the philanthropic sector to combat hate funding. We also maintain an online hub with updated links to resources and sample policies.”
  • TechSoup Global hosts Caravan Studios. Public Good Tech to Combat Hate Speech Pinterest board, where Caravan Studios is curating tech solutions and discussions on combating hate speech. They note, “we encourage you to include your own links to relevant resources, important data sets, lexicons, and reports by adding them into the editable Webinar Resources doc.”

Positive Thinking Support

There are more helpful websites and apps than the below online, but I wanted to point out a few that I like. You might also enjoy reading about resources I share on, “Dealing With Stress.”

  • Achieving Positive Thinking Worldwide is a California-based nonprofit that got in touch with me a few years ago via Carolyn’s Nonprofit Blog. Follow Yvette L. Kelley on social media for constant positive messages.
  • Calm app, “We’re a small and mighty team passionate about mental fitness, relaxation and sleep.”
  • Happify seeks to instill happiness. “… The brain we’re born with can be changed. Technically speaking, they call that neuroplasticity; we can change it by adopting new thought patterns, by training our brain as if it were a muscle, to overcome negative thoughts.”
  • Pozify is a social networking platform that rewards you for promoting and spreading positivity while solving the problem you can’t trust anything on the internet.