Social media bosses must invest in guarding global elections against incitement of hate... - 0 views
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dr tech on 30 Sep 23"In the context of ongoing corruption crises, rising anti-migrant rhetoric and anti-human-rights movements, and threats to press freedom, the role of social media companies may seem like a lesser priority, but in fact, it is a crucial part of the picture. People's rights and freedoms offline are being jeopardised by online platforms' current business model, where profit is made from stoking up anger and fear. At the South African human rights organisation where I work, the Legal Resources Centre, we are seeing an escalation of xenophobic violence that is often incited on social media. A recent joint investigation we conducted with international NGO Global Witness showed that Facebook, TikTok and YouTube all failed to enforce their own policies on hate speech and incitement to violence by approving adverts that included calls on the police in South Africa to kill foreigners, referred to non-South African nationals as a "disease", as well as incited violence through "force" against migrants."