‘We Want You To Be A Proud Boy’: How Social Media Facilitates Political Intimidation and Violence

Amid a volatile election season, the report ‘We Want You To Be A Proud Boy’: How Social Media Facilitates Political Intimidation and Violence outlines the steps social media companies like Facebook, TikTok and Telegram can take to reduce their contribution to increasing levels of political intimidation and violence across the U.S. and around the world. 

The HFG-funded report written by Paul M. Barrett of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights is part of HFG’s Violence, Politics & Democracy initiative, a multi-year project examining how these phenomena interact in mature democracies to understand and counter political violence and other forces that damage democratic norms and institutions, imperiling the safety of citizens. Based on a review of more than 400 social science studies, the report identifies particular features of social media platforms that make them susceptible to exploitation and suggests how to mitigate the dangers.

On October 17, Barrett spoke with Justin Hendrix about how social media can lead to political violence and how social media companies, government and users can reduce the likelihood that virtual speech will lead to real-world violence.

Watch Video Below

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Paul M. Barrett is the deputy director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He joined the Center in September 2017 after working for more than three decades as a journalist and author focusing on the intersection of business, law, and society. Most recently, he worked for 12 years for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, where he served at various times as the editor of an award-winning investigative team and a writer covering topics such as energy and the environment, military procurement, and the civilian firearm industry. Barrett is the author of four critically acclaimed nonfiction books, the most recent of which are GLOCK: The Rise of America’s Gun, and THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE: The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who’d Stop at Nothing to Win.