Hate speech and gang attack algorithms ‘adding to school violence scourge’

A leading Cairns principal says social media algorithms promoting ‘hate speech and gang violence’ is leading to trouble in schools.

“We have young people exposed to hate speech and gang violence by algorithms of social media” said Dr Barton.

A leading Cairns principal says social media algorithms promoting “hate speech and gang violence” are playing a significant part in the emerging crisis of student violence in schools.

Head of Djarragun College Dr Michael Barton says he believes schools are becoming more violent as a result of an increasing amount of hateful and violent material coming to young people through social media algorithms.

“We have young people exposed to hate speech and gang violence by algorithms of social media,” he said.

“Schools are just a reflection of the society they come from — and young people are seeing this stuff all the time.”

Dr Barton is speaking out after more than 60 videos were shared on social media showing violence between students off and on campus.

It also comes after a source in Aurukun, 800km northwest of Cairns, said a young teen had allegedly armed himself with a crossbow after seeing an Instagram post that named a dead Indigenous person.

Dr Michael Barton says online hate speech and violence are causing real-life problems.

YouGov survey results released late last month showed hate speech was more commonly online than violent content.

Dr Andre Oboler, CEO, Online Hate Prevention Institute said when it came to hate speech online young people were less likely to engage in it.

“Most of the racism and group-based speech comes from older white people. Young people’s conflicts online tend to be more personal and more about bullying,” he said.

“It’s not the students who are posting it, even though they are the ones seeing it,” he said.

Online networking on facebook.Photo: Brett Wortman / Sunshine Coast Daily

Dr Oboler said since the referendum there had been an increase in anti-Indigenous comments on social media — which peaked around Australia Day.

“This can lead young people who see this to feel like the world is a very hostile place, which can cause them to step back and not want to engage in mainstream society. This can have a long-term impact when this happens in formative years” Dr Oboler said.

“We have also seen the families of Indigenous children who have passed away being targeted by non-Indigenous adults online with derogatory memes.”

Dr. Andre Oboler is CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute a charity he co-founded to enhance online safety and improve social media transparency. He said that the death of an indigenous child often leads to people making derogatory memes and comments designed to create emotional distress for grieving families. Photo: Supplied

He said social media companies had a reasonably low strike rate for removing material flagged as hate speech by the Online Hate Prevention Institute.

“We had a conversation with Twitter and found that, the people normally making the decisions about what is and is not permitted content are not from Australia and so they often don’t understand what certain offensive things mean, and so it doesn’t get taken down,” he said.

Australian eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has the power to compel online service providers to remove seriously harmful content within 24 hours.

Originally published as Hate speech and gang attack algorithms ‘adding to school violence scourge’