Safe Digital City - How online Hate travels to physical streets

Social media platforms have become spaces where threats, hate speech and extremism are thriving. Extremist groups have centered their recruitment efforts and misinformation campaigns on the same social media platforms that have become part of our everyday lives. This development is problematic for municipalities and local security workers, as it is still difficult to form an accurate picture of how hatred, extremism, and racism travels online and into the physical streets, communities and areas of a city.

Facing these challenges requires a systematic understanding of why, where, and how the local hate is formed and spread online. When such an understanding does not exist, local actors are often forced to act in the dark – or only after hatred has taken root in the physical environment.

Nordic Safe Cities is analyzing the public conversations online both on a local and national scale, to identify who the hatred is targeting, what themes that are polarizing the conversations online, and what events triggers the hate.

The aim is to give local professionals and municipalities a deeper understanding of the problem in their city and to give them new tools to strengthen their digital prevention work locally and to safeguard their residents from harmfull content online – ultimately creating a safer digital democracy.

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