How Spain is Producing Data to Stop Hate Speech in its Tracks
- May, 2019
- Projects

An elusive subject like “hate speech” with a definitive object like “data” are rarely paired together –at least not effectively. Why? Because social issues –like hate speech– don’t exactly translate into hard numbers.
On social media, derogatory speech geared towards a group of people can be very explicit; or it can be very subtle and buried in innuendo. If aimed at a broad group of people, there’s no one person to report it in order to quantify it. Also, the root of the issue or malice often depends on the context, again, making it very hard to identify and measure.
But without the actual numbers –the data– it’s extremely difficult for institutions to develop and propose programs that will be supported by governing bodies to become law.
And intervention is the only way to challenge and counter online hate speech before it turns into destructive –or even life-threatening– action in the real world.
How is Spain challenging hate speech?
We can push through better hate-speech policy if we have better data. The challenge is getting it.
How is Citibeats helping Spain do this?

Impact report
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