How to fight hate speech without ending up in the trenches? Linguist Anne-Birgitta Nilsen believes she has the recipe.
OSLO (Nettavisen): – We must become better at saying that “I do not agree with you” and then explain why, without attacking, but stick to the case, says professor and linguist Anne-Birgitta Nilsen at OsloMet to The online newspaper.
Our newspaper is one of several that last week ran the campaign “I stand up against hate speech online”, with a call to fight hate speech online. The online newspaper asked Nilsen for her advice as a linguistics expert. How do we generally stand up to hate speech online?
Warns against generalizations
– The dangerous thing about the label hate speech is that it weakens people’s status, it affects your dignity, she says and thus warns against using the term widely.
Nilsen is occasionally upset about a debate that takes place in the trenches. Ten years after the bombing of the government quarter and the massacre on Utøya, the topic of hate speech and how to fight it again is hot.
– Nobody likes to be called haters. No one is just a hater. The world is not black and white, it is not them and us, the haters and the rest of us. These are rough generalizations. We should rather talk about what has been said and say that “I do not like this statement because”, for example that it is suitable for creating suspicion. I also notice that some of those who have gone out hard also promote their own goodness. But we are not moving forward that way. We only move forward by having a factual debate, says Nilsen.
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– Better at reading each other
She points out that the ambiguity of the language, the context of the utterance and our own interpretation of what others say are difficult.
– We must become better at hearing what the other party says, not just let us be guided by the emotions that are triggered when we read and listen. We have a little too many skin debates, in my opinion. We need to become better at reading each other, not just making assumptions.
Will clean up social media
Should debates like the one about hate speech and extremism lead anywhere, Nilsen believes that more responsibility must be shown on social media.
– I have done a lot of research on social media, where the opportunity to act anonymously is widespread. It is very unfortunate because it deprives people of responsibility. They can say anything. There will be more extreme conversations. That is why I think it is important to promote accountability in these forums, she says.
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