Three high-profile mass murders committed in recent years by white supremacists had at least one thing in common: a relatively fringe social media platform called 8kun (formerly 8chan) that has become a haven for white nationalists. The alleged El Paso, Texas, shooter who killed 23 people in 2019 posted an anti-immigrant manifesto to the platform prior to the attack. In it, he expressed support for the accused shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand, who killed 51 people in two mosques and also used 8kun. And before the 2019 synagogue shooting in Poway, California, the alleged gunman posted a link to his manifesto on 8kun, referencing the shooters in New Zealand and in the 2018 massacre of 11 Jewish worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

These killing sprees all used a social media platform to spread hate. And unfortunately, although most social media users don’t frequent 8kun, hate-fueled violence isn’t limited to the darkest corners of the Internet. Many extremists use mainstream platforms rather than fringe services to communicate their message and recruit adherents. And because they exploit popular consumer products to push prejudice, we must confront it on the largest platforms that reach billions of people every day.

Social media has been at the center of the storm for more than a decade, and its toxic potential reached new heights during the last presidential term. Whether you consider it the catalyst or just a conduit, the fact is that social media drives radicalization. It’s a font of conspiracy theories, a slow-burning acid weakening our foundations post after post, tweet after tweet, like after like. And the hate festering on social media inevitably targets the most vulnerable—particularly marginalized groups like religious, ethnic, and racial minorities, and members of the LGBTQ communities.

Read the full article about combatting hate online social media by Jonathan A. Greenblatt at Stanford Social Innovation Review.