“Deplatforming,” Hate-Mongers, a very good idea

 

Life is better without bomb throwers.



A recent study published in The Proceedings of the ACM on Human Computer Interaction (HCI), has shown that when you “de-platform,” (i.e., remove from social media) individuals who are uniquely hateful, their followers tend to tone down in a hurry. The piece, “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Deplatforming as a Moderation Strategy on Twitter,” by Shagun Jhaver, Christian Boylston, Diyi Yang, and Amy Bruckman, looks at what happened after three high-profile Right-wing influencers, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Owen Benjamin, were removed from Twitter.


The result? Their followers began far less virulent in their own postings. Their Twitter postings were far less angry, and were far less likely to suggest violence as a legitimate response to current events.


Clearly, then, shutting up a few b*stards pays significant dividends. Definitely worth the investment.


~mjt



*”Evaluating the Effectiveness of Deplatforming as a Moderation Strategy on Twitter,” Shagun Jhaver, Christian Boylston, Diyi Yang, and Amy Bruckman. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer InteractionVolume 5Issue CSCW2October 2021 Article No.: 381pp 1–30https://doi.org/10.1145/3479525 Published:18 October 2021

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