Hateful commenting online. Control strategies for newsrooms.

Leif Kramp, Stephan Weichert. 2018. 32 S.

Today Hate speech, slurs and slander enjoy unwanted popularity in comment columns of online newspapers and their social media channels. These unqualified and often emotionally laden comments are as unwanted as frustrating for the editorial offices of those newspapers and their users alike.

With the practice-oriented publication "Hateful commenting online. Control strategies for newsrooms." the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW provides online editors and other affected parties with a 10-point plan against hate speech on the Internet. This whitepaper presents strategies for how editors can take action against hateful commentaries and civilise escalating debates on their online channels.

These control strategies are the result of a research project carried out by the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW with the support of Google Germany GmbH. In order to develop this guidance, scientists have observed the discussion behaviour of users of popular online newspapers and analysed the moderation strategies in use.