4/6/2022
Collective Counterspeech in Conflict Fragile Countries: Risks and Possibilities
Cathy Buerger
Director of Research at the Dangerous Speech Project
Cathy Buerger is the Director of Research at the Dangerous Speech Project (DSP), a Washington, DCbased NGO that studies the relationship between speech and violence. She is a Research Affiliate of the University of Connecticut’s Economic and Social Rights Research Group, Managing Editor of the Journal of Human Rights, and an Editor for the Teaching Human Rights Database. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut
Abstract
Every day, internet users encounter hateful and dangerous speech online, and some of them choose to counterspeak - responding directly in order to refute or undermine the speech. Many of those who have taken on this effort go about it alone, while others organize into groups to coordinate responses and support each other. What opportunities exist for using group counterspeech to challenge dangerous and hateful speech in conflict fragile settings? What lessons can be learned from online collective action efforts already underway in countries around the world? This presentation will review the literature on collective online counterspeech, synthesizing knowledge from many contexts on the method’s effectiveness. Then, drawing on examples from Brazil, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sweden, and the United States, it will discuss the challenges and possibilities of using collective counterspeech to respond to hatred and dangerous speech in conflict fragile settings.
