New project: Stop Hate Speech

‘Stop Hate Speech’ combines natural language processing and machine learning with civil society engagement to counter online hate speech. The project is led by alliance F (Federation of Swiss Women’s Associations) and implemented in close collaboration with the research institute sotomo, the IT-company ama-sys, the Digital Democracy Lab (UZH) and the Public Policy Group and Immigration Policy Lab (ETH). Starting in November 2020, 'Stop Hate Speech' will be supported by Innouisse.

The project seeks to algorithmically detect hate speech across a variety of online venues (newspaper and social media) and to generate actionable knowledge about effective strategies for counter speech. For this purpose, the project team will develop a deep learning pipeline for automatic hate speech detection and evaluate a range of promising counter speech strategies with experimental methods.

The close cooperation with alliance F and Swiss media outlets ensures that the scientific findings directly translate into effective detection and reduction of online hate speech. The goal is to improve the quality of public discourse and to minimize offline consequences of hostile online behavior.

As part of the DSI Challenge Area Democracy Prof. Fabrizio Gilardi and Prof. Karsten Donnay are involved in the project. For further information see: www.stophatespeech.ch

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