An article by the United Church of Christ’s media justice ministry published on Medium.com explores online hate speech, how it is spread and what can be done to stop it.
Covering many different facets of the problem, UCC points out that “efforts to spread hate are often sophisticated and coordinated. Hateful comments online are often focused on women and people of color. Online users can feel overwhelmed by hate groups and are forced to stop participating in online discourse. New studies suggest that women and minorities are more likely to self-censor. Hate speech can, therefore, reduce speech by people who are the most likely to be marginalized by existing power structures.”
UCC presents a list of actions for people of faith to help counter online hate:
- Develop resolutions for local churches, interfaith coalitions, and as denominational policy.
- Use our financial muscle as shareholders to petition companies to improve their policies.
- Expand opportunities for faith communities to learn more about online hate speech.
- Use platform tools provided by Facebook, Google (Adsense website advertising, Adwords search advertising, YouTube) and Twitter to report hate. Report examples to Media Matters and individual harassment to Communities Against Hate.
- Join actions hosted by Color of Change, Media Matters, the Coalition Against Hate and others.
- Review our own online advertising policies and channels to be sure we are not inadvertently supporting hate.
- Create multigenerational forums that can be used in religion school curriculum — young people and older people can both teach and learn.
From its beginnings, the Church of Scientology has recognized that freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. In a world where conflicts are often traceable to intolerance of others’ religious beliefs and practices, the Church has, for more than 50 years, made the preservation of religious liberty an overriding concern.
The Church publishes this blog to help create a better understanding of the freedom of religion and belief and provide news on religious freedom and issues affecting this freedom around the world.
