Collective Counterspeech: External and Internal Impacts

How does working as a group impact the ability of counterspeakers to shift discourse norms? This chapter draws on data collected through ethnographic observation and interviews with members of the #iamhere International Network, a collective of over 150,000 Facebook users who respond together to what they regard as hateful comments online. As is discussed below, collective counterspeech has many benefits—it can amplify one’s speech and make efforts to counter hatred more sustainable, which can, in turn, make them more effective. As the findings of this research show, the act of counterspeaking as a member of a group also positively affects those who do it—a category of people often overlooked by researchers in studies of the effectiveness of counterspeech. Interviewees reported that counterspeaking as a group made them feel braver and more empowered to challenge oppressive speech in a variety of settings.