The failure to recognize dangerous speech—rhetoric that can inspire group violence—from Trump and other strongmen around the world is just one example of social media companies’ poor use of their vast private power. In this essay, Susan Benesch argues that while international human rights law was made for governments and not private companies, it has the potential, if adequately interpreted, to serve as a guide for social media companies to regulate hateful speech and for outsiders to hold these companies accountable.
Susan Benesch
Susan Benesch, who teaches at American University's School of International Service, founded and directs the Dangerous Speech Project, to study speech that can inspire violence—and to find ways to prevent this, without infringing on freedom of expression. To that end, she conducts research on methods to diminish harmful speech online, or the harm itself. She also serves tech companies as an external source of ideas and critique, and speaks and publishes on governance of online content, hate speech, and disinformation. Trained as a human rights lawyer at Yale, Benesch is also a faculty associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. Among her recent publications on how best to limit harmful content online are: “The Insidious Creep of Violent Rhetoric,”Noēma, March 4, 2021; “But Facebook's Not a Country: How to Interpret Human Rights Law for Social Media Companies,” Yale Journal on Regulation, Sept. 14, 2020; “The Deadly Consequences of Trump's Gradual and Insidious Rhetoric,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 13, 2021.