Stronger Together: Unleashing the Social Impact of Hate Speech Research

2025-05-19

AI Summary

The rise of the internet has heightened risks for marginalized groups on social media, including exposure to hate speech, misinformation, and digital exclusion. This paper critiques technocentric approaches and proposes a socially embedded, interdisciplinary governance paradigm: integrating linguists, NLP researchers, community members, activists, and policymakers through sociolinguistic analysis, participatory action research, and cross-sector co-design to translate grassroots language practices into actionable digital inclusion policy tools. Its key contribution is the first systematic articulation of a “society-driven” intervention framework for hate speech—moving beyond purely computational paradigms by unifying cultural sensitivity, structural equity, and policy feasibility. This approach advances global digital governance by offering a new paradigm that balances ethical rigor with practical efficacy.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Natural Language Processing: Ethics — Bias, Fairness, Transparency & Privacy
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Bias, Fairness & Equity

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Technology governance, policy, and regulations
• Social Networks and Social Media: Media and governance, opinion dynamics, filter bubbles, polarization
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Decentralized Web and Fediverse systems

Abstract

The advent of the internet has been both a blessing and a curse for once marginalised communities. When used well, the internet can be used to connect and establish communities crossing different intersections; however, it can also be used as a tool to alienate people and communities as well as perpetuate hate, misinformation, and disinformation especially on social media platforms. We propose steering hate speech research and researchers away from pre-existing computational solutions and consider social methods to inform social solutions to address this social problem. In a similar way linguistics research can inform language planning policy, linguists should apply what we know about language and society to mitigate some of the emergent risks and dangers of anti-social behaviour in digital spaces. We argue linguists and NLP researchers can play a principle role in unleashing the social impact potential of linguistics research working alongside communities, advocates, activists, and policymakers to enable equitable digital inclusion and to close the digital divide.

Problem

• Addressing hate speech via social methods, not just computational solutions
• Applying linguistic knowledge to mitigate anti-social behavior online
• Leveraging linguistics research to promote equitable digital inclusion

Innovation

• Shift from computational to social methods
• Apply linguistics to mitigate digital risks
• Collaborate with communities for digital inclusion