Midterms revive debate over online hate speech

A day after the Democrats swept to victory in the midterms, online right-wing discourse in the aging corners of Facebook turned to calls for an armed conflict with Muslims and socialists.“Vote from the rooftops” said the caption on an image of a sniper taking aim from a rooftop. The slogan is a euphemism in rightwing subculture that if voting fails, it’s time to take up arms.Another post warned of a coming civil war with “no one left to protect Muslims and social democrats” if they defund the police.“I got a feeling that Abdul El Sayid won’t be around too long,” said another post, referring to the Michigan senator-elect, who faced one of the ugliest islamophobic campaigns.Hate speech and calls for violence online aren’t new.

But the problem has grown worse in recent years, experts said, after social media platforms including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram rolled back content moderation and fact-checking policies over fears of censorship and bias.Anti-immigration rhetoric, election denialism and health skepticism are recurring themes for violent and false narratives in extreme right-wing online subcultures, weaponized by politicians. Incendiary speech has been further boosted by AI-powered slop that’s worsened an ailing information ecosystem.In the runup to the midterms, wishes of harm and violent threats targeted at candidates running for office jumped fivefold on Elon Musk’s X, according to the Center for Countering Digital Harm, a non-profit based in Washington DC.

First reported by LA Times: Business.