Abraham Foxman

It's fascinating reading this book in the time of the alt-right, which has been a grassroots movement borne from the viral hate discussed in this book. I would love to read an updated version of this book in light of Trump's election and how viral hate movements made that possible and have now gone mainstream. This book touches upon some of the neo-Nazi movements we're seeing so prominently in action today and offers some concrete steps we can take to help fight these trolls, but again, it feels like that movement has spun so out of control that it's hard to deal with on a case-by-case basis. A timely topic but yeah, by now, the book is a bit dated.… (mer)

oxman, Abraham H. and Christopher Wolf. Viral Hate: Containing Its Spread on the Internet. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Viral Hate, written by the national director of the Anti-Defamation League and the Chair of its Civil Rights Committee, discusses the spread of hate speech on the internet and what can be done about it. This book discusses the problem through the use of many examples, which has both good and points through that strategy. The good points is that by using many cultural examples, the reader is more easily able to identify with what is being called hate speech. However, this is helpful only if one is aware of the situation being discussed. By explaining hate speech through examples it also makes it a bit unhelpful as the authors never really give a precise definition of hate speech. The authors explain that part of that problem is that hate speech is difficult define. While not referenced in this book, it seems as if hate speech is understood in the same way as a Supreme Court Justice defined pornography- "I know it when I see it." This weakness also makes it difficult to understand what is meant by hate speech.

A hefty portion of he book examines what can be done about hate speech. The authors analyze a number of different methods and give their critiques. They suggest that passing laws banning hate speech is not helpful. They give a number of non-American examples of when this was done and why it was not successful. The authors examine a two-pronged solution to stopping internet hate speech: first, by using counter speech, an attempt at stopping the lies of hate speech with factual information and by enforcing community standards through internet sites, such as Facebook and Yahoo.

Overall, the book is helpful in giving a broad overview of the problem of hate speech on the internet. The book presents a helpful explanation to the various ways that are suggest for combatting hate speech and which ideas are the best solution to combatting hate speech.… (mer)