A word to the wise

Words can be crucial weapons. Needless to say, many times they hurt people, especially on social media. The virtual world has made it easier to criticise. Throwing words around through a keyboard allows people to say anything, even to strangers.

By realising that this phenomenon is perilous, Ogilvy & Mather Thailand has joined with Sutat Rongtong, founder of social innovation and innovative learning company Do In Thai, to launch a campaign on reducing hate speech in online media. The campaign is a part of their #ForceForGood project that aims to create a positive change in Thai society.

The campaign features a viral video showing a lady who is having make-up put on which makes it look like a cosmetic ad at first. The video then displays negative online comments other people write about her. After reading those comments, the lady commits suicide. The final scene reveals the make-up we see at the beginning is that for the dead body.

Also as part of the campaign, website letscleanslate.com has launched a service to allow Internet users to search for particular keywords they think they have posted on Facebook that might potentially be considered hate speech. The site will go through one's post and sum up the total posts containing the words. Users can also review those posts and decide whether to delete or leave them.

For those concerned about privacy, the site claims that the only information collected is your Facebook ID number to keep a record of the number of website users. Keywords, the number of deleted posts and the number of searches are also collected by the website but will not point to who makes the search. Personal information like name, profile picture and contact information are shown only when the user is on the system and will be automatically deleted once the website is closed.

Feedback has been positive. As of yesterday, over 35,000 Facebook posts have been deleted.

One user's comment on Ogilvy & Mather Bangkok's Facebook page reads: "The app shows all posts containing certain words I have used. And what I found was I forgot that I posted some. I decided to delete many but still keep some."

This tool might not be most effective when it comes to filtering hate speech online as all it can do is search for certain words, but it lacks the ability to analyse surrounding context. Not to mention that hate speech can also come in the form of photos, videos and songs. But at least it's successful in raising awareness. The video went viral as people shared it with a caption saying how they agree with the message from the video.

Last week, Unicef Thailand also launched a similar campaign with regard to words used in social media which could bully, threaten or violate anyone, especially children. K-pop idol Nichkhun Horvejkul is a presenter of the project. He's persuading everyone to submit advice on how to deal with threatening comments online by using #ReplyForAll.

The campaigners believe that ending violence online is everyone's business. Supporting each other is the solution to spark change.