Jun 10, 2025

Ph.D. Student Tells WOSU How Social Media Sites are Being Used to Spread Hate Speech

From WOSU Public Media

Examining how social media sites are being used to spread hate speech

By Vinay Patel

On Oct. 27, 2022, Elon Musk became the new owner of Twitter, ushering in countless new changes. One of Musk's biggest directives was how content moderation was going to work under his new leadership. This resulted in numerous guidelines and teams being removed. Multiple studies have linked this decision to a dramatic rise in hate and hate groups across the platform, and many other sites have followed suit.

During this hour of All Sides, we are talking about how social media sites are being used as a tool to spread hate.

Guests:

Daniel Hickey, PhD student and researcher, University of California Berkeley

Ali Winston, investigative reporter/author of The Riders Come Out at Night 

Laura Edelson, assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University

Read more...

Dan Hickey is a PhD student focusing on computational social science, natural language processing, and online harms. 

Last updated: September 25, 2025