How government, tech companies and individuals can tackle online hate
The second day of the Online Hate, Media (Mis)Representation and Racism Conference featured more than a dozen speakers and moderators including (from left to right, top to bottom) Jennifer Boyce, Wesley Crichlow, Ruby Latif, Amanda Arella, Ahmed Al-Rawi, Bernie Farber, Nadine Spencer, Michelle Ferrier, Karim Bardeesy, Bill Killorn, Anatoliy Gruzd and Suzie Dunn.
The two-day Online Hate, Media (Mis)Representation and Racism Conference brought together academics, government leaders and experts to address the escalation in hate crimes and online hate. In recent years there has been egregious online attacks, some associated with violence, targeting Indigenous Peoples, Muslims, Jews, women, Black, other racialized people, the 2SLGBTQ+ community and other equity-deserving groups. Organized by the Diversity Institute (DI) and funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (external link) , the first day probed the spread of and issues in online hate. The final day focused on devising solutions for individuals, organizations and governments.
The conference is part of an series of training events building on DI’s Anti-Racism Action Program (external link) (ARAP)-funded project. Led by DI founder and academic director Wendy Cukier, Media Bias and Under-represented Groups project aims to understand how Canadian news media organizations represent people who are Indigenous (First Nations, Métis or Inuit), Black, Muslim and Jewish; the impact of media representation on members of these groups; and ways to improve their representation in these organizations.
The first panel, moderated by Suzie Dunn, assistant professor at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, delved into strategies for combating Internet-based hate. Dunn’s questions explored types of interventions required to tackle online hate, emphasizing the role of governments, companies and individuals in minimizing hate speech based on international norms.
A shared responsibility to intervene
Karim Bardeesy, executive director of the Dais and co-founder of the Leadership Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), highlighted social media's massive impact and reach. “It’s a business model that prioritizes exponential growth and the exponential growth of problems,” he said, adding that governments should direct technology companies to take action against hate speech.
Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram provide tools to report online hate but lack transparency according to Anatoliy Gruzd, Canada Research Chair in Privacy-Preserving Digital Technologies at TMU. "It's not always clear what happens when users are reported … because of the lack of transparency in this reporting process, I think it undermines its effectiveness,” he said.
Ahmed Al-Rawi, associate professor of news, social media and public communication at Simon Fraser University and founder of The Disinformation Project, stressed that tackling online hate is a shared responsibility and advocated for increased efforts from technology companies, highlighting the need for more effort than platform moderation.
“This kind of responsibility is a shared one. It's not only the government doing this, but also academics. We need to write critically about the social media sites and journalists as well,” Al-Rawi said.
He provided a solution for everyday users of platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter, suggesting muting and downranking users who spread hateful messages. Blocking users may inadvertently incite them to spread hate elsewhere, but muting them avoids amplifying their messages.
Bill Killorn, the interim executive director of Journalists for Human Rights, moderated the subsequent panel. He opened by acknowledging that online hate shouldn’t be accepted as a part of what it means to exist online.
“We need to talk about solutions and put forward ideas. Pressure needs to be exerted on policymakers, on the private sector, on the media sector to bring about the solutions and the change that we want to see,” Killorn said.
The role of the media
Cukier and Mohamed Elmi, executive director of DI, then presented the preliminary results of the Media Bias and Under-represented Groups project. It includes three components: content and discourse analysis of media, focus groups with representatives from equity-deserving groups and interviews with diverse journalists. Cukier highlighted how mainstream media plays a critical role in reinforcing or challenging stereotypes. She acknowledged the important role of journalists in advancing human rights around the world and in driving change domestically, often at great personal risk. She noted that at the same time, incomplete or negative portrayals of equity-deserving groups in mainstream media are amplified on social media and have an impact on the daily lives of affected individuals.
“There is a link between representation in media organizations—leadership, production and reporting—and the content,” she said. How stories are framed is a function of who's making decisions about what is newsworthy, who is an expert and how they are portrayed, Cukier said, adding that the lack of diversity often results in egregious errors. She highlighted that while there is observable change in recent years, the lack of diversity among reporters and columnists, particularly those covering national news, remains a challenge, especially in print media.
Elmi reported on the results of focus groups to date; more than 115 people have participated who identify as Indigenous, Black, Muslim or Jewish. Elmi said so far findings indicate participants feel that their representation in mainstream media is inadequate. For example, it fails to reflect the diversity within groups, to celebrate successes or to cite diverse experts for their expertise as opposed to their identity. All groups identified that stereotypes are perpetuated by the media and that there is inadequate nuanced representation of political issues.
There’s a strong belief that increasing diversity among journalists will make a difference, Elmi added.
Wendy Cukier (left) and Mohamed Elmi presented the Media Bias and Under-represented Groups project, an ongoing study led by the Diversity Institute which examines the impact of stereotypes on equity deserving communities and the role of journalists in advancing inclusion.
Echoing Elmi’s findings, Ruby Latif, director of equity, diversity and inclusion for the Brant Community Healthcare System highlighted that her doctoral research had similar results. She looked at thousands of Toronto Star and Globe and Mail articles with search terms related to the Muslim community and found that while the number of articles grew over the years, the content didn’t represent the Muslim community.
The dominant topics in the media around Muslims reference Islamophobia and terrorism, but there is little that shows the breadth of experiences or highlights Muslims in a positive light, she said. There is little coverage, for example, of Muslim entrepreneurs or philanthropic activities or social life, Latif said.
Cukier noted, in recent years, there has been a surge in anti-2SLGBTQ+ hate on the Internet, fuelled in some ways by events south of the border, which is connected to acts of violence. Jennifer Boyce, director of communications at Egale Canada, highlighted that while representation is key, in her experience as a 2SLGBTQ+ advocate, the context is just as important.
“I think it comes down to being really informed about the stories that you're working on, making sure that they are the right voices at the table,” she said. Boyce added that it’s essential for journalists to build relationships with organizations, which creates more space for conversations and opportunities to amend errors. Egale has launched public campaigns tackling hate.
Empowering young people
Wesley Crichlow, a professor in the faculty of social science and humanities at Ontario Tech University, moderated the final session, which covered community-based solutions to online hate.
Michelle Ferrier, executive director of the Media Innovation Collaboratory and the founder of TrollBusters, highlighted how although online hate happens virtually, it is tied to one's physical identity.
“Whether it is our financial data, our location data, our voting data, our residential data, all of that data is accessible and, unfortunately, is being weaponized and moving the online harms into physical space,” Ferrier said. She noted that this makes solutions even more essential. She highlighted the importance of setting boundaries to protect oneself and how legislation is also part of the solution.
Crichlow noted that a challenge with legislation is law enforcement, which is different for equity-deserving groups. The lack of trust in law enforcement, or the lack of trust in the state or solid forms of surveillance, creates a barrier to solutions, he said.
Echoing Crichlow, Bernie Farber, chair of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, pointed to data (external link) that suggests people who go to the police to report hate crimes are often disappointed in the process. He said people who face hatred have better outcomes with community support. “So giving resources to community programming is one way to help people targeted by online hate,” Farber said.
Amanda Arella, director of public policy, advocacy and strategic communications at YWCA Canada, emphasized the importance of empowering young people to lead the necessary change in online spaces.
“The solution is really centring the communities who are experiencing this impact and trusting them as the experts in their own experience that they know what they need,” Arella said. The panelists agreed financial support for groups targeted by online hate is an important part of the solution.
The importance of allyship
Cukier and Nadine Spencer, president and CEO of the Black Business and Professional Association (external link) gave closing remarks. Cukier expressed gratitude to the speakers, attendees and the DI team, emphasized the significance of allyship in combating hate and misinformation, and invited participants to join DI’s ongoing research project.
Highlighting her lived experience of racism as a Black woman, Spencer encouraged the audience to continue to collect data and use knowledge from lived experiences to effect change. While the conference showed there are many different experiences of hate, Spencer noted there are also many similarities.
“We cannot be bystanders in this environment. We have to take action. Online hate and systemic racism are hard problems to solve, but by working together we can make them better.”