Let's do some Bolti Bandh dialogue.

How to minimise hate and abuse on the internet?

Dear Friends

I keep talking about the internet and all the pros and cons of it but I am never putting any actions to my thoughts, I feel like Faye D’Souza and I want to stop feeling that way.

So here is what I am working on for the next few months, I am creating a tool which will help us to have more meaningful conversations on the internet. I am doing this project as a part of my Bolti Bandh fellowship and I have already started working on it.

This tool will be like a quick checker of whatever tweet or IG caption or FB status or email that you publish and it will tell you if you are being empathetic towards the other person on the internet or not. It’s like the ‘TAKE 2’ safety measure in a factory, where you take two seconds extra before deciding to wear a helmet or not, or let’s say before going on the floor without your safety shoes.

The tool does not have a name yet but we have already started researching over it by talking to peace linguistics experts, language experts, tech personalities, and even some of my friends because friends offer sometimes the best advice and that is why I am writing to you all today about it.

On this link, you will find a research paper of a Chrome Extension tool that was made in 2017 and we have been working with Sumit to help us with building our tool.

But if you are interested into working on this or know anybody who can help us in building this tool which will help us minimise hate and abuse on the internet, just reach out to me on this newsletter or email me directly on pawan@pfaindia.com

Here are some of the articles that I have been reading with respect to research about this tool

1. What does regulating technology look like?

2. It’s time for India to regulate it’s social media platforms writes Rajya Sabha Member Rajeev Chandrashekhar

3. What kind of hate is spread on different social media platforms in different countries?

4. 5 ways to counter hate on social media platforms

5. The most important policy or rule for Social media platforms is the Section 230 of Communication Decency Act which separates platforms from being called as publishers. This act is what sets apart a Facebook and a Times of India. Basically Times of India is responsible for every word they put out on the internet or in their paper but Facebook isn’t.

6. When Mark Zuckerberg said an ‘Independent Supreme Court’ could fix Facebook’s content problem.

7. How online hate turns into real-life violence?

8. Twitter will drop the words like ‘blacklist’ or ‘whitelist’

9. Some best practices of challenging cyberhate.

10. What happens when somebody who is responsible for suspending Twitter accounts for hate speech gets his Twitter account suspended?

If you feel this is something that interests you even in the smallest way just reply to this email or if you know someone who would love to contribute to this project, just ask them to reach out to me on pawan@pfaindia.com

Take care you all, the lockdown might be lifted but the danger is still out there.