This report seeks to summarise the strategies followed to generate counter narratives, paying special attention to automatic systems based on machine learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
The well-known expansion of social interactions through digital platforms has led to inappropriate behaviour on the Internet, such as the spread of hate speech among platform users. Freedom of expression on these media has exposed their users to publications that are sometimes used to denigrate, insult or hurt with language, whether mild or rude, on grounds of gender, race, religion, ideology or other personal charac teristics. Unfortunately, this type of communication can be very harmful, causing negative psychological effects among users, especially among young people, in the form of anxiety, the feeling that they are being cyber-bullied, and even suicide in the most extreme cases.
This problem mainly involves governments and online platforms, which must adopt measures in the form of laws and policies to help promote healthy coexistence on these media. For example, since 2013, the European Council has promoted the "No Hate Speech" movement to mobilise young people to combat hate speech and promote human rights on the Internet. In May 2016, the European Commission reached an agreement with Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube, and signed a "Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online". Based on this Code, the "Protocol to Counter Illegal Hate Speech Online" has been drafted in Spain. Between 2018 and 2020, other platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Dailymotion and TikTok signed up to the European Commission's Code of Conduct.