Counterspeech research aims to combat online abuse by offering rebuttals to hateful content and supporting victims, providing an alternative to controversial measures like content moderation and deplatforming.
Advancements in large language models could streamline the generation of counterspeech through automation, facilitating widespread online campaigns.
However, understanding the effectiveness of counterspeech, optimal implementation conditions, and its impact on mitigating hate remains limited.
Research delves into mechanisms like 'counterspeech' as a means to combat online abuse without platform or law enforcement intervention, potentially mitigating the effects of abuse.
Detection and generation of counterspeech, essential for AI-assisted hate mitigation tools, assist in understanding dynamics between perpetrators, victims, and bystanders.
Automating counterspeech creation is crucial due to its time-consuming nature and the expertise required for its effectiveness, benefiting practitioners dealing with harmful content.
Despite the potential of counterspeech, research in this field remains fragmented across disciplinary boundaries, hindering a comprehensive understanding of its impact.
This review article presents a holistic view of counterspeech research, bridging computer science and social science perspectives over the past decade.
It defines counterspeech, evaluates its effectiveness, reviews technical work on its generation, and highlights the interplay between computer science and social science in this domain.
The study discusses challenges and opportunities in leveraging automated counterspeech tools for online hate mitigation, providing recommendations for both AI researchers and social scientists.
The aim is to equip researchers, policymakers, and practitioners with insights to harness automated counterspeech effectively in combating online hate.