IGF 2018 WS #317
Media and Information Literacy: Countering Online Hate

The Internet has transformed how we socialize and participate in all aspects of social, economic, cultural and political life. As with most new inventions, the overwhelming positives bring challenges that cannot be ignored. The Internet is progressively more abused to promote radicalization, hate and extremism that leads to violence. On the other hand, it offers new opportunities and tools to counter these same social ills and creating lasting human solidarity and peace.

More and more governments and other social actors are developing separate and comprehensive strategies to counter radicalization, prevent violent extremism and hate. Interventions range from reducing the supply of violent extremist content, reducing the demand for such content and suppressing it or crowding it out with more pluralistic, democratic, rights-based and peace content, and finally making maximum use of violent and extremist content in cyberspace to obtain intelligence. The reduction of the supply of radical content is primarily pursued through use of technologies themselves including computer algorithms (e.g. Expert Systems and talk of Artificial Intelligence).
However, the tendency is to underestimate the potency of citizens and community empowerment – particularly through media and information literacy (MIL).

The root causes of violence, especially hate and violent extremism have many dimensions. These include power struggles, illegal wealth gain, lack of education, poverty, misinformation, prejudices, and discrimination. At the basis of many of these is the absence of respect for individual rights or equal rights to all – the right to cultural and religious expressions, the right to security and peace, the right to freedom of expression, the right to education, the right to information, the right to associate or connect, the right to life et al.

Here, Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood” - is breached. It is this reasoning and conscience that the acquisition of MIL competencies can stir in all peoples.

Additionally, violence also comes from ideological beliefs, which in turn comes from our socialization - transmitted from one generation to the next. Socialization is rooted in information and communication, and increasingly taking place through technological platforms, media and all forms of learning environments. MIL can help citizens to identify and resist attempts to shape their identity for rights-violating purposes. It can empower them to critique a culture of violence as they may encounter it through technology and media, and to embrace instead a culture of peace, tolerance and respect.

Citizens, especially young people, must know how to search, critically evaluate, use and contribute information and media content wisely. MIL competencies can allow them to acquire knowledge of one’s rights online; understanding how to combat online hate speech and cyberbullying; understanding of the ethical issues surrounding the access and use of information; and engage with media and ICTs to promote equality, free expression, intercultural/interreligious dialogue, peace etc., thereby being better able to counter hate speech and radicalization online. Indeed, such competencies are becoming increasingly important today, not only for young people but also for all citizens.

Fostering these 21-Century competencies for all citizens is one sustainable way to complement the use of Artificial Intelligence to tackle hate and violent extremism online. The UNESCO pioneering resource "Media and Information Literacy: Reinforcing Human Rights, Countering Radicalization and Extremism" will serve as a basis for this session.