pte20210706024 Media / communication, politics / law
According to researchers, non-English languages appear as a problem area
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LGBTQI +: Often targeted by Facebook hate speech (Photo: Tanushree Rao, unsplash.com) |
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Sydney (pte024 / 07/06/2021 / 13:30) – In Asia, hate postings often go through Facebook that clearly seems to violate community guidelines. This is shown by a study by researchers from the University of Sydney and University of Queensland, which looked at public Facebook groups in Asia-Pacific countries. In Australia, the moderation actually works well, elsewhere, among other things, non-English postings seem to cause problems. The study also found that the hatred of the LGBTQI + community in particular is apparently primarily driven by politics.
Language problems
“Hate speech moves so quickly that algorithms have trouble keeping up,” said Fiona Martin, professor of online and convergent media at the University of Sydney. The same applies to human moderators. Because when group operators report apparently obvious hate postings, such as rape requests, these often do not violate community guidelines, according to Facebook. Facebook’s problem does not seem to be to define hate speech, but to recognize it.
One reason for this should be language barriers, according to the researchers on “The Conversation”. The algorithms are likely to have problems with dialects and minority languages. This is supported by the fact that the team did not find any unmoderated hate postings in Australian LGBTQI + groups. In the Facebook groups of this community in Indonesia and the Philippines, on the other hand, there was excessive hatred, including threats of being stoned or beheaded.
Politics stirs up hatred
However, this could also be related to the extent to which LGBTQI + rights are politicized in individual countries. Because in Indonesia and the Philippines, as in India, the topic is highly charged. In Myanmar, where this is not the case, the study shows that the community’s Facebook groups are confronted with significantly less hate speech. Politics seems to be the main hate driver. According to the first author of the study, Aim Sinpeng, there is a correlation between religiosity and the number of hate postings against LGBTQI + communities.
More from the study authors on “The Conversation”: https://bit.ly/3jQmjbY
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