Hate on Social Media-Are Current Michigan Laws Adequate?

Hate radicalization often starts with group chatter. Research highlights how hate spreads in online forums such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Messenger. We have limited laws in Michigan to deal with such issues and as of now our state's leaders have not yet taken the next step to bolster Michigan socially and economically. Hate isn't an isolated incident but is a social learning process embedded in influencer chatter and social coaxing. 

One thing that politicians discuss publicly is economic development but are often short on details on how to get there without considering lost human capital due to a legacy of hate.  I'm a firm believer in developing people and their skills to use modern tools to compete on the global market through natural motivations and innovations. Not strengthening our laws mean that we run the risk of dissuading half the population from fully engaging and limiting the type of investments that state can attract from international investors.

Stepping up to stop hate means we are setting a signal that our society follows universal principles that seeks to be open arms to those who want to grow, develop, be productive and contribute to society. Capitalism relies on the ability of people to pursue their natural interests and that will be difficult if we do not dissuade hate groups from limiting our ability to grow as a people and a state. 

Hate Groups Encourage More Hate

One way to see why its important to follow up on hate groups is to focus on how their behavior impacts others to engage in similar behaviors through hate speech. A study of 21 million posts and 314K social media users that hate speech encouraged other people to engage in similar hate speech. It also found that voices of maturity and reason were drowned out by hate speech and even those who are silent can be come radicalized. You can read the research HERE. 

The study highlights how hate speech is often mixed with other types of speech, "Hate speech is a complex phenomenon, intrinsically associated to relationships among groups, and also relying on linguistic nuances. It is related to some of the concepts in social science such as incivility, radicalization, cyberbullying, abusive language, toxicity, profanity and extremism. Owing to the overlap between hate speech and these concepts, sometimes it becomes hard to diferentiate between them" (Binny, et. al, 2020, 92:3). 

Intensity of Hate

Intensity of online hate can be determined by using a DeGroot model and can be measured by providing a numeral rating 0 to 1. 0 being low levels of hate motivation and 1 being high levels. We can look at certain key words of members of the group to help determine their hate lexicon. For example, the words members of the group use to discuss and define others (out group) is an indication of their current beliefs and stance toward others.

As members interact with each other they will naturally influence what beliefs are socially acceptable and how hate behaviors encourage more hate through social learning. We can capture this behavior through the DeGroot model that evaluates how some preexisting beliefs and updates those beliefs as they interact with other members. Thus as a person posts and becomes connected to others the group will continue to adjust their beliefs raising or lowering the propensity of hate beliefs.

The model basically calculates intensity of hate by how members interact. For example, an original hate post by j is repeated multiple times by user i. Therefore one can continue to take snap shots of social media activity at various intervals to create a hate score for each of the group members. We may also determine who are the influencers of hate and how core members build off of each other's values. 

Best Case Scenario:

In the best case scenario healthier group members can raise dissenting view points and correct malignant opinions before they become fully adopted by the group. When people begin to speak up against hate it sends a signal that such behaviors are unacceptable in modern societies (No matter if small or large towns) and in turn dissuades others from engage in similar rhetoric. If a group cannot adapt to a higher moral form and develop values that are in alignment with our American spirt of justice and free capitalistic society then they are detracting from our future prospects. 

Unfortunately, groups sometimes are unable to self-monitor and in turn move toward hate consensus of In and Out-Group dynamics. This is where laws come into play and we need leaders that are able to draw as many different societal stakeholders into a single national vision as they can. At present our divisive politics, mixed with underlining demographic shifts and economic uncertainty are playing havoc with our need for an orderly and peaceful society. As our nation falls behind on multiple fronts our leaders have not yet grasped the need to pass new hate laws that provide the maximum flexibility (i.e. moving beyond felony to misdemeanor, mental help and other solutions that are warranted) to law enforcement so as to encourage all of society to activity engage in national development. It would be great if Michigan would spearhead our Information Age Renaissance. Michigan still holds competitive advantages in basic data infrastructure, diversity, human capital, educational capacity and a unique spot on the global supply chain  to revitalize our economy for another 50 years. We must only believe in the American dream again!

Mathew, B. et. al. (2020). Hate begets Hate: A Temporal Study of Hate Speech. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 4, CSCW2, Article 92 (October 2020), 24 pages. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3415163