Online hate speech is a pressing issue that causes great harm to its targets and societal discourse as a whole. Deletion-based approaches which are commonly used to combat hate speech suffer from practical and ethical issues. In our brief “Intervening Against Online Hate Speech: A Case for Automated Counterspeech”, we discuss the use of automated counterspeech as a supplement to deletion that could address some of those issues. Empirical evidence and psychological theory point toward the potential of automated counterspeech for bystander mobilization against online hate speech and for the general improvement of online discourse. However, the application and the research this matter cause unique ethical issues which we elucidate in this research brief.

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