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C. The Effects of Discrimination in Language Use On Facebook

Our world has always struggled with discrimination, which is one of the most discussed topics today and throughout history. Online, users feel free to express discriminatory comments without social barriers between themselves and victims. This allows hateful discourse to spread widely and continuously reinforce stereotypes on social media for years. The UN warns that normalizing hateful online language can worsen real-world discrimination. Technology companies should acknowledge their role in empowering and amplifying hate speech on their platforms.

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104 views2 pages

C. The Effects of Discrimination in Language Use On Facebook

Our world has always struggled with discrimination, which is one of the most discussed topics today and throughout history. Online, users feel free to express discriminatory comments without social barriers between themselves and victims. This allows hateful discourse to spread widely and continuously reinforce stereotypes on social media for years. The UN warns that normalizing hateful online language can worsen real-world discrimination. Technology companies should acknowledge their role in empowering and amplifying hate speech on their platforms.

Uploaded by

Dracula Vlad
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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C.

The effects of discrimination in language use on Facebook

There are a number of issues and problems that need special attention.

The first problem is the controversial concept of `intentionality', understood here in the
action and theoretical sense. Speakers may know such situations when they are criticized
for a sexist or racist word and then defend themselves by affirming 'that they did not mean
it that way', or that such was `not their intention'.

This is also a principie of some legal and political treatments of social actions and
discourse—whether or not a person intends a sexist, racist or other offensive remark, he or
she should know the possible interpretations and hence the consequences of her/his
discourse. In other words, what matters are (foreseeable) social consequences, and not
(good or bad) intentions.

Of course, none of them are 'observable'. If speakers and recipients are ideological
opponents, such a situation may typically lead to a conflict.

In fact, a number of cases, recipients who do not know the speaker (and her social
representations, ideologies) may thus very well misunderstand or misinterpret the
speaker. Often such misunderstandings may be resolved by further questions, explanations
or negotiation, such as ( 'What do you mean...?'). In short, theoretically we need both
intentions and interpretations as part of ideological communication. Only then are we able
to explain ideological disputes, problems, conflicts and other properties of ideological
interaction.
Our world has always been faced with the problem of discrimination. It is one
of the most discussed topics nowadays and throughout history. In all countries
there is at least one type of discrimination that affects different groups of people.
When online, users tend to feel at ease and free to express discriminated
comments. Another important element is the fact that in two-thirds of the cases,
the offenders had no previous relationship with the victims. This suggests that
social media platforms enable users to disregard any social distance that
might exist between themselves and the targets of their verbal abuse.
Therefore, they can potentially direct their hateful discourses unrestrictedly to
people in the online environment.
Furthermore, rather than fading away soon after its publication, racist discourses
posted on social media keep attracting new users for the same discrimination topic
for up to three years. This shows the continuous reinforcement of the
stereotyped narrative for a long time on social medias.
The United Nations Human Rights Council warns that the popular of hateful
discourses in the online environment can lead people to accept as something
normal, which can worsen the discrimination in language. Finally, the large
corporations behind the major social media platforms should not refrain from their
share of responsibility for tackling this growing issue, because the digital
technology like Facebook has been empowering hateful discourses and greatly
amplifying their voice.

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