Social media platforms enable connection and sharing among friends, family and colleagues, while offering unprecedented opportunities for getting ideas out to much larger audiences. Political events such as the Arab Spring and social movements like Black Lives Matter show what important work is possible with social media at scale.
At the same time social media can be used to spread messages of intolerance, harassment and hate, as we’ve seen in the rhetoric surrounding Gamergate and the 2016 presidential race. Women, members of ethnic minorities, and activists often find themselves the target of trolls and organized groups that attempt to shut down and silence their work.
Please join us at MITH (and remotely) to gather with others looking to learn from each other about how to investigate and thwart hate speech in social media. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Extremist Files provides a list of known hate groups. At our Night Against Hate event we will collaboratively try to link the SPLC list to social media accounts. This list can then be used by researchers here at UMD and elsewhere to examine the effect that these groups are having online. In addition, we hope to use this event to learn from each other about emerging tools and techniques of self care while working online.
If you’re planning to attend in person or remotely, please click here to sign up. Pizza will be provided for those that can make it to MITH.