{"id":1001,"date":"2020-08-24T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/?p=1001"},"modified":"2020-08-21T15:41:37","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T14:41:37","slug":"whats-to-ban-social-media-policies-on-hate-speech-and-reclamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/whats-to-ban-social-media-policies-on-hate-speech-and-reclamation\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s to ban: social media policies on hate speech and reclamation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social media policies on hate speech are very controversial and have recently ignited a lively debate.[1] <\/a>For one thing, social media have both the right and the responsibility to police the shared contents and comments, or the platform risks to be used to promote hate, violence, and the like. Such policies not only concern the content of what we communicate, but also the language we use. The idea behind this is, roughly, that words matter and that our language not only reflects our values but is also able to spread them. Psychology provides interesting insights here. We know for instance that hate speech and discriminatory language have negative effects not only on their direct targets but also on bystanders: short-term effects such as discomfort and anger and long-term ones, such as fear, low self-esteem, stress, drastic behavioral changes and depression (Fasoli 2011, Swim et al. 2001, 2003).<\/p>\n

However, slurs \u2013 just like many other negative terms \u2013 can be reclaimed. They can be used positively in the face of oppression: under special circumstances, they can be employed to convey solidarity, intimacy, camaraderie and so on. Philosophers and psychologists have been looking at this phenomenon and underlined the potential benefits of reclamation (Brontesema 2004, Kennedy 2002): empirical research for example found that when people self-apply a slur in a reclaimed way, they not only feel more powerful but also appear more powerful to bystanders. Moreover, the self-application of slurs can diminish the perceived offensiveness of the word at stake. Overall, when a slur gets reclaimed, subjects feel empowered and the term loses its potential to hurt and derogate (Galinsky et al. 2003, Galinsky et al. 2013).<\/p>\n

Social media platforms play an important role in spreading these new uses of language and setting new trends, in fostering this sense of solidarity and creating supporting communities all over the world. However, those in charge of enforcing hate speech policies may have a hard time in distinguishing derogatory uses of slurs and reclaimed ones, especially if instead of human beings companies try to rely on algorithms. Social networks sometimes ban reclaimed uses of slurs and this risks to become the norm in the future policies. Just to mention a couple of well-known cases: in 2017 Facebook[2]<\/a> censored the post where the lawyer Brooke Oliver told about her victory in the trail for Dykes on Bikes<\/em> to reclaim the slur in a trademark, while in 2018 Instagram[3]<\/a> removed a post by an account dedicated to sharing pieces of queer history which featured the famous 1992 poem by the activist Zoe Leonard \u2018I want a president\u2019 for failing to comply with hate speech policies. Examples abound. In many cases, not only the posts are removed, but the users are banned from the platform for a certain amount of time.<\/p>\n

To ban reclaimed uses of slurs (and reclaiming users) can be hurtful in at least three ways. First, these measures end up marginalize marginalized people more than anyone else: they result in censoring and literally excluding from the social network those who would rely on these platforms for support.[4]<\/a> Second, these policies make it harder to tell and uncover the history of fights for social equality, and to express one\u2019s personal narrative and experience:[5]<\/a> forbidding to reclaim a slur is forbidding a way (an important one) to mock the bigots, dissociate from them and raise awareness. Third, reclamation can do its trick \u2013 i.e. turning a harmful word into a non-harmful one \u2013 only if it becomes mainstream, if people get on board.[6]<\/a> Reclamation needs to gain visibility to be effective on the long run and social media (together with music, tv shows, plays, films) play a crucial role in this, especially since online communication is so fast and wide-reach. All in all, censoring reclaimed uses of slurs on social networks has the paradoxical effect of taking away a means of resistance from those who most need it.<\/p>\n

There is a great deal of judgement calls when it comes to hate speech, so it is of the highest importance that such calls take as many factors as possible into account. Hate speech policies are the result of a trade-off between the need to protect freedom of speech and the need to guarantee a safe space: such a negotiation has to consider who<\/em> are the ones that a certain policy harms. Simplifications such as \u2018this term is just prohibited\u2019 surely make hard calls easier and save companies time and money. But over-simplifications can contribute to the same marginalization they are supposedly meant to fight. The fine-grained contextual judgement that hate speech seems to require is currently very costly, as it involves a good deal of employers working on an enormous number of posts and comments, in all the languages used in each platform. Should this cost be paid by social media companies? It does, if having a reasonable hate speech policy that gets applied in a fair way is a crucial requirement for a social network rather than just a plus. Surely, it can be hard to detect reclamation and tell apart standard and reclaimed uses of slurs, but this does not make it OK to condemn acts of reclamation or to ban reclaimers from social networks.<\/p>\n

Our language activity is clearly very hard to reduce to an algorithm and the reclamation of slurs is just one among many instances of this trait: our language use is creative, productive, subversive and to some extent unpredictable. But let\u2019s acknowledge this and come up with creative solutions, rather than just censor legitimate acts of protest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Brontsema, Robin. 2004. \u201cA queer revolution: reconceptualizing the debate over linguistic reclamation.\u201d Colorado Research in Linguistics<\/em> 17: 1-17.<\/p>\n

Fasoli, Fabio. 2011. \u201cOn the effects of derogatory group labels: The impact of homophobic epithets and sexist slurs on dehumanization, attitude and behavior toward homosexuals and women.\u201d PhD diss., University of Trento.<\/p>\n

Galinsky, Adam D., Kurt Hugenberg, Carl Groom, and Galen V. Bodenhausen. 2003. \u201cThe reappropriation of stigmatizing labels: Implications for social identity.\u201d In Identity Issues in Groups<\/em>, edited by Polzer, Jeffrey, 221-56. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.<\/p>\n

Galinsky, Adam D., Cinthya S. Wang, Jennifer A. Whitson, Eric M. Anicich, Kurt Hugenberg, and Galen V. Bodenhausen. 2013. \u201cThe reappropriation of stigmatizing labels: The reciprocal relationship between power and self-labeling.\u201d Psychological Science<\/em> 24: 2020-29.<\/p>\n

Kennedy, Randall (2002), \u201cNigger.\u201d\u00a0The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. <\/em>New York: Vintage.<\/p>\n

Swim, Janet K., Lauri L. Hyers, Laure L. Cohen, and Melissa J. Ferguson. 2001. \u201cEveryday sexism: Evidence for its incidence, nature, and psychological impact from three daily diary studies.\u201d Journal of Social Issues<\/em> 57: 31-53.<\/p>\n

Swim, Janet K., Lauri L. Hyers, Laure L. Cohen, Davita C. Fitzgerald, and Wayne H. Bylsma. 2003. \u201cAfrican American College Students\u2019 Experiences With Everyday Racism: Characteristics of and Responses to These Incidents.\u201d Journal of Black Psychology<\/em> 29, no. 1: 38-67.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> See for instance: https:\/\/www.thefire.org\/whats-caught-in-the-wide-net-cast-by-hate-speech-policies\/<\/a>; https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/how-facebook-checks-facts-and-polices-hate-speech\/<\/a>; https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2017\/06\/hard-questions-hate-speech\/<\/a>; https:\/\/edri.org\/the-digital-rights-lgbtq-technology-reinforces-societal-oppressions\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.thefire.org\/whats-caught-in-the-wide-net-cast-by-hate-speech-policies\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> https:\/\/www.intomore.com\/culture\/instagram-is-censoring-lesbian-content-for-violating-community-guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/facebooks-hate-speech-policies-censor-marginalized-users\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> https:\/\/medium.com\/@thedididelgado\/mark-zuckerberg-hates-black-people-ae65426e3d2a<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> https:\/\/www.good.is\/articles\/take-it-back-5-steps-to-reclaim-a-dirty-name<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Picture: “I want a president” by Zoe Leonard installed at the High Line from: https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Highline_art_Zoe_Leonard.jpg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social media policies on hate speech are very controversial and have recently ignited a lively debate. For one thing, social media have both the right and the responsibility to police […]","protected":false},"author":1319,"featured_media":1003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A new post on Open for Debate - Bianca Cepollaro on \"What\u2019s to ban: social media policies on hate speech and reclamation\"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[251,252],"custom_author":[250],"class_list":["post-1001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-for-debate","tag-hate-speech","tag-slurs","custom_author-cepollaro-bianca"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8KPlM-g9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1497,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/social-media-a-viral-promoter-of-social-ills\/","url_meta":{"origin":1001,"position":0},"title":"Social media: a viral promoter of social ills?","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"August 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Public discourse is the currency in which we exchange our attitudes and beliefs. Social media has proven a double-edged sword with respect to this exchange. On the one hand, it has enabled debate and contact between citizens on a scale previously unimaginable. On the other, this ability to exchange ideas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":852,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/political-debate-in-the-digital-age\/","url_meta":{"origin":1001,"position":1},"title":"Political Debate in the Digital Age","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"February 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In an ideal democratic world, all citizens are invited to debate political necessities and possibilities to the best of their knowledge and to forge their country\u2019s future in this way. In an ideal democratic world, political debate is, in other words, both inclusive and evidence-led. In a dystopian world, by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Social media links","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2020\/02\/nordwood-themes-cNXqmO0Z24U-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2020\/02\/nordwood-themes-cNXqmO0Z24U-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2020\/02\/nordwood-themes-cNXqmO0Z24U-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2020\/02\/nordwood-themes-cNXqmO0Z24U-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2020\/02\/nordwood-themes-cNXqmO0Z24U-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2020\/02\/nordwood-themes-cNXqmO0Z24U-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1242,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/conspiracies-and-counterspeech\/","url_meta":{"origin":1001,"position":2},"title":"CONSPIRACIES AND \u2018COUNTERSPEECH\u2019","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"July 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2018The 2020 US election was stolen.\u2019 \u2018COVID-19 was intentionally developed as a biological weapon.\u2019 \u2018Climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese.\u2019 The times have been good for conspiracy theories. This, in turn, is dangerous. As these examples illustrate, conspiracy theories often sow confusion or scepticism about crucially important\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/07\/Picture-Lepoutre-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/07\/Picture-Lepoutre-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/07\/Picture-Lepoutre-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/07\/Picture-Lepoutre-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/07\/Picture-Lepoutre-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/07\/Picture-Lepoutre-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":735,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/normalization-practices-make-it-so\/","url_meta":{"origin":1001,"position":3},"title":"Normalization\u2014Practices Make It So","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"September 23, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Rising nationalism and nativism around the world generate a toxic brew of arrogance and xenophobia that pits people against one another in often frightening ways. Understanding some discursive mechanisms that undermine our capacities to respond to these forces might help. It has become commonplace for people to worry about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2019\/09\/lowhangingfruit_54c6-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2019\/09\/lowhangingfruit_54c6-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2019\/09\/lowhangingfruit_54c6-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2019\/09\/lowhangingfruit_54c6-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2019\/09\/lowhangingfruit_54c6-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2019\/09\/lowhangingfruit_54c6-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1138,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/modeling-sex-as-a-joint-activity\/","url_meta":{"origin":1001,"position":4},"title":"Modeling Sex as a Joint Activity","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"February 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"There has been an ongoing philosophical discussion over the last three decades on consent and refusal of sex qua speech acts \u2013 that is, acts performed in the uttering of certain words (typically, \u2018yes\u2019\/\u2018no\u2019) in a sexual setting[1]. Both consent and refusal are \u2018second-turn speech acts\u2019. The thought is simple:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/02\/jason-leung-F2WX4BTIkpQ-unsplash.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/02\/jason-leung-F2WX4BTIkpQ-unsplash.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/02\/jason-leung-F2WX4BTIkpQ-unsplash.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/02\/jason-leung-F2WX4BTIkpQ-unsplash.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/02\/jason-leung-F2WX4BTIkpQ-unsplash.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2021\/02\/jason-leung-F2WX4BTIkpQ-unsplash.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":419,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/reflections-on-transcribing-multimodal-texts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1001,"position":5},"title":"Reflections on Transcribing Multimodal Texts","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"March 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Since the election of Donald Trump in 2017 the media has often seemed to be in a continual state of shock at the brusque manner of the forty-fifth president\u2019s speech. During the summer of 2017 I conducted a research project into transcription methods for multimodal discourse, contributing to the Changing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/03\/4244624289_70b27dc8a6_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2020\/08\/900px-Highline_art_Zoe_Leonard.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001\/revisions\/1004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=1001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}