Source: Good News Network
Republished with permission from Peace News Network (Written by Kate Roff)
Online ‘bots’ are normally viewed in a negative light, but this social enterprise is proving that they can also be used for good.
In light of the increasing political divisions in online media, the organization Build Up is using social media bots to help depolarize conversations. Their project called The Commons contacts people who may want to connect with others and look for common ground.
Jacob Lefton from Build Up says: “What polarization is as a phenomenon, is that groups of people are separating from each other and building stereotypes of the other groups of people, and losing shared facts and losing shared language to talk about the issues, and it doesn’t matter if one side is right or wrong in this if there can’t be a healthy civic conversation.”
“And for us it’s one of the indicators for a society that’s sliding toward conflict,” Lefton said. “And we’re seeing more extreme hate speech… and these stronger and…
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