GoKawiilResearcher Mirta Galesic details strategies for countering online hate speech
Mirta Galesic, co-leader of the Collective Minds research group at Vienna's Complexity Science Hub, discusses her research into hate speech and 'counterspeech' responses in an interview with Nature. She notes that hostile posts targeting specific groups have surged around events like migrant crises and elections, citing a 240% rise in anti-South Asian posts on X between January 2024 and June 2026, and points to AI-generated content and bot accounts as factors amplifying divisive rhetoric.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
Galesic links the rise in online hostility to broader social stress—inequality, institutional strain and conflict—which she suggests creates uncertainty that gets channeled into hatred toward particular groups. Her framing implies that tackling hate speech effectively may require addressing these underlying anxieties rather than just moderating individual posts, and that AI-driven content could make the problem harder to contain going forward.
- Anti-South Asian hate posts on X rose 240% between January 2024 and June 2026, according to cited data.
- Researcher Mirta Galesic studies both hate speech and 'counterspeech' as a way to understand effective responses.
- AI-generated content and bot accounts are identified as factors exacerbating divisive online rhetoric.
Source: nature.com — Shenai, 2026-10-02
Published there as: “How to respond to hate speech without fuelling it further”
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