Making a Case for a Social Processes Approach to Online Hate
Joseph B. Walther
Abstract
This chapter presents and integrates a variety of arguments and evidence in order to advance a case for understanding and studying online hate as a primarily social process. It provides critical and interpretive assessments of observable phenomena that suggest how and why online hate is produced and propelled largely as a social activity rather than solely as an act of individual animus. The chapter substantiates these assertions by reviewing anecdotal examples, semiotic interpretations, and results from behavioral studies, complemented by findings from computational linguistics and network-analytic research, and by the speculative application of other theories and approaches that appear in a variety of disciplines, to hateful or hate-like online events and processes. It concludes by raising questions about the implications of a social processes approach with respect to content moderation strategies in social media.