Internet, the mirror of our society
COLUMN The cover story of the SonntagsZeitung deals with racism on the Internet and concludes that the Internet promotes hatred and violence. It is not that simple. A reply from Ellen Girod* from the Social Media department at the HWZ in Zurich. Report a comment on Facebook. (Source: Own screenshot from Facebook.) The Facebook logo adorned yesterday's front page of the [...]
Report a comment on Facebook. (Source: Own screenshot from Facebook.) The Facebook logo graced the front page of yesterday's SonntagsZeitung. The Cover story quotes racist Facebook comments against Jews or asylum seekers like "Grad verschüsse. Sones Saupack bruched mer da nöd" and comments on them by scientists and politicians. Conclusion of the article: On the Internet, an individual can hide behind a group, and this anonymity promotes Disinhibition and Radicalization. In short: The Internet promotes hatred and violence. It is not that simple. Our world was already full of hate and violence before the World Wide Web was even invented at Cern. Hate and violence continue to dominate the headlines today. Disinhibition argument We are in 2014 and not at the launch of Facebook. Since Snowden, at the latest, every reasonably experienced Internet user knows that his tweets and posts are the equivalent of an exclamation on Bahnhofstrasse. What you wouldn't shout on Bahnhofstrasse, you let be on the net. Even if the online group pressure is great and the inhibition threshold to click on the beautifully designed social media buttons such as "Like" or "Reply" is small: On the digital street on the net, it can only be hidden in the crowd almost as well as on a normal street during a demonstration. Almost, because the digital world stores everything and forgets nothing. Almost because your digital screams are linked to your name, avatar and the IP address of your smartphone or laptop. Data that is more difficult to obtain during a street demonstration.
But just like on the Bahnhofstrasse, the same applies to the digital street Civil courage or intervention of the Police. Civil courage means: courage of citizens to report racist discrimination (e.g. on Facebook). Courage to express a different opinion in online discussions. And this courage does take place on the net. As an example, see the Online emporung, which triggered Bortoluzzi's discriminatory brain lobe statement. Or the former SVP politician, who first lost office and was later found guilty because of his crystal night tweet. What may actually be missing on our digital streets is a Police. A police force that guards the First of May demonstration, but which does not (yet) show up at every spontaneous mini-demo on the net (a group discussion or shitstorm). Martine Brunschwig Graf from the Federal Commission against Racism wants to negotiate with Facebook in the next few weeks who will carry out this enormous task of a net police.
It is right that politics should be concerned with this. Because Violence and racism are to be fought by the police on the net just as they are in the physical public sphere. However, the politicians' outrage over racism on the net is reminiscent of the outrage over the results of the MEI vote. Internet is not a fire accelerant, but a mirror of our, in this case, Swiss society.
