Countering Hate Speech Online

How can we counter online hate speech and xenophobia?

As humans, we thrive on social connections and group associations. But this tendency can also lead us to be suspicious of people outside our group. This fear -- xenophobia -- can be overcome by more exposure to people who are different from us. However, the internet can often make this more difficult. Help students recognize this challenge and find strategies for navigating content online.

Objectives:

• Describe the relationship between hate speech and xenophobia.
• Analyze how the internet has contributed to an increase in hate speech and extremist views.
• Describe one way to use the internet to combat one type of hate speech.

Vocabulary 

• hate speech 
• counterspeech 
• extremism 
• xenophobia

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