Dialogues of Dissent: Thematic and Rhetorical Dimensions of Hate and Counter-Hate Speech in Social Media Conversations

TL;DR

This paper presents a new multi-label annotation scheme for categorizing hate and counter-hate speech in social media, analyzing their thematic and rhetorical features to understand interaction patterns and influence.

Contribution

It introduces a novel joint annotation framework for hate and counter-hate speech, combining thematic and rhetorical analysis based on classical rhetoric principles.

Findings

Identifies key thematic and rhetorical patterns in hate and counter-hate messages.

Provides statistical insights into interaction dynamics in social media conversations.

Highlights strategies used to counter hate speech and their potential effects.

Abstract

We introduce a novel multi-labeled scheme for joint annotation of hate and counter-hate speech in social media conversations, categorizing hate and counter-hate messages into thematic and rhetorical dimensions. The thematic categories outline different discursive aspects of each type of speech, while the rhetorical dimension captures how hate and counter messages are communicated, drawing on Aristotle's Logos, Ethos and Pathos. We annotate a sample of 92 conversations, consisting of 720 tweets, and conduct statistical analyses, incorporating public metrics, to explore patterns of interaction between the thematic and rhetorical dimensions within and between hate and counter-hate speech. Our findings provide insights into the spread of hate messages on social media, the strategies used to counter them, and their potential impact on online behavior.