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The English Defence League (EDL) is the biggest populist street movement in a generation. Yet the make-up of the group and what its members believe remain a mystery because it has no formal joining procedures or membership list and much of its activity takes place online. The collection of large amounts of data from social media presents new opportunities for social research to understand the relationship between off- and online activity. As more movements combine – and blur – virtual and real protest, these questions will become increasingly urgent and important. These surveys, collected through Facebook using a new methodology, offer new ways forward in exploring this challenge.

Facebook est utilise par près de 1.5 milliard de personne autour du monde. Si la majorité d’entre eux l’utilisent bienveillamment, il y en a parmi eux qui utilisent cette plateforme à de mauvaises fins. De ce fait, Facebook a créé un ensemble de conditions et de règlements, les Standards de la communauté, détaillant les contenus publiables et non-publiables sur ce réseau social. Par exemple, Facebook interdit et supprime les propos haineux, définis comme un ‘contenu qui cible des personnes en raison de leur race, leur ethnicité, leur origine nationale, leur religion, leur sexe, leur orientation sexuelle, leur infirmité, ou leur état de santé réel ou supposé’. Alors que Facebook proscrit les propos haineux, il arrive que des contenus désagréables ou perturbants qui n’enfreignent toute fois pas les conditions d’utilisation de Facebook soient publiés.

Pour contrer ce genre de contenu extrémiste ou désagréable, Facebook a publiquement déclaré que la pratique du contre-discours, ainsi que les outils fournis pour son développement, doivent jouer un rôle critique. Selon Facebook, cette méthode n’est pas seulement probablement la plus efficace d’adresser l’extrémisme en ligne, mais a également de meilleures chance d’y succéder à long-terme.

L’utilisation du contre-discours est une réaction participative et couramment employée contre l’extrémisme et le contenu haineux. En effet, les publications Facebook à contenu extrémiste sont souvent reçues avec désaccord et dérision, ainsi qu’avec des contre-campagnes. Il est avantageux de combattre l’extrémisme ainsi puisque cette méthode est plus rapide, plus flexible, responsive et capable de le combattre n’importe où et dans n’importe quelle langue – tout en promouvant le principe d’espaces publiques ouverts à la libre expression. De plus, les formes prises par ce contre-discours sont toutes aussi variées que l’extrémisme auquel elles s’opposent. Elles ne sont pas toujours aussi effectives qu’elles ne pourraient l’être, et il faut également considérer la possibilité que le contre-discourspourrait éventuellement être contre-productif.

Casi 1.5 millón de personas emplean Facebook en todo el mundo. Aunque la mayoría de las usuarios utilizan el sitio con fines positivos, algunos emplean la plataforma con malas intenciones. En este sentido, Facebook ha creado las normas de la comunidad, un conjunto de políticas que detalla qué tipo de contenido es apropiado publicar y qué queda prohibido. Por ejemplo, Facebook prohíbe y elimina contenido que incite al odio, que define como “contenido que ataca directamente a individuos en función de su raza, origen étnico, nacionalidad, religión, orientación sexual, sexo, género, identidad de género, discapacidad grave o enfermedades”. A pesar de que la incitación al odio está prohibida, en ocasiones ciertos usuarios publican contenido desagradable o perturbador que no infringe las políticas de Facebook.

Para contrarrestar ese tipo de contenido desagradable o extremista, Facebook ha declarado públicamente que el contenido compensatorio (y las herramientas que su plataforma ofrece para promoverlo) desempeñan un papel fundamental en la lucha contra dichas malas prácticas. Facebook opina que esta forma de atajar el problema no es sólo resulta potencialmente más eficaz, sino que además es más probable que tenga éxito a largo plazo.

Circa 1,5 miliardi di persone utilizzano Facebook su scala globale. Sebbene la maggioranza lo usi a scopi positivi, ce ne sono alcune che usano questa piattaforma in modo negativo. Partendo da questo presupposto, Facebook ha creato delle politiche, ossia gli Standard della Comunità, che elencano quale tipo di contenuto possa essere condiviso, e quale no. Ad esempio, Facebook proibisce e rimuove i commenti che incitano all’odio, definendoli “contenuti che attaccano direttamente una persona (o un gruppo di persone) in virtu’ di: razza, etnia, nazionalità di origine, affiliazione religiosa, orientamento sessuale, sesso, genere o identità di genere, disabilità o malattia”. Nonostante i contenuti che incitano all’odio non siano permessi, a volte le persone condividono contenuti sgradevoli o inquietanti che, tuttavia, non violano le politiche di Facebook.

Al fine di contrastare questo genere di contenuti estremisti e spiacevoli, Facebook ha dichiarato pubblicamente che il counter-speech (N.d.T.: il replicare, il controbattere), insieme ai mezzi che la piattaforma prevede per incoraggiarlo, debba rivestire un ruolo importante. Facebook ritiene non solo che, potenzialmente, tale approccio possa essere più efficace per affrontare il problema, ma che possa anche essere quello vincente nel lungo periodo.

VOX-Pol Blog post.

Facebook serves more than 1.5 billion people globally. Although the majority of people use the site for positive purposes, there are some who use the platform in negative ways. With that in mind, Facebook has created a set of policies – its Community Standards – detailing what type of content people can and cannot post. For instance, Facebook prohibits and removes hate speech and does not allow dangerous organisations (defined as groups that engage in terrorist or organised criminal activity) to have a presence on Facebook. Content that supports or promotes those groups is removed. However, sometimes people post content which other users may consider hateful or extreme, but which does not violate Facebook’s policies.

To counter this type of disagreeable or extremist content, Facebook has publicly stated that it believes counter-speech is not only potentially more effective, but also more likely to succeed in the long run. Counter-speech is a common, crowd-sourced response to extremist or hateful content. Extreme posts are often met with disagreement, derision and countercampaigns.

Combating extremism in this way has some advantages: it is faster, more flexible and responsive, and capable of dealing with extremism from anywhere and in any language; and it retains the principle of free and open public spaces for debate. However, the forms counter-speech takes are as varied as the extremism it argues against. It is also likely that it is not always as effective as it could be; and some types of counter-speech could potentially even be counter-productive. In the light of its belief in the power of counter-speech and the growing interest in a more rigorous and evidence-led approach to understanding it better, Facebook commissioned Demos to undertake this research report, examining the extent to which different types of counter-speech are produced and shared on Facebook.