If you can make your message visible to thousands of people or (tens of, hundreds of), instantly, for free, I don't think it's playing with the same rules anymore. It's a huge societal breakthrough. Freedom of speech was not an interesting idea before the printing press happened. The internet is another step beyond the printing press. It will require a lot of human thinking and debating before the internet is able to adapt and improve society like the printing press did.
China and Russia are often saying that western societies are vulnerable because freedom of speech, but it becomes true only if the internet exists.
I personally think that online hate will force society to work on the cause of hate, so in the end society will be more cautious about hateful ideologies, but we might also work on poverty, lack of education and mental illness which are often the cause of hate speech. The population will naturally become more aware of the implication of their extreme opinions, and learn to moderate their speech to let other answers happen.
In the end I think we're already benefiting a lot from the internet, it's just that the problems it create are more visible.
The problem is malignant anonymity and online trust. Once the internet is more focused on local problems, people will stop behaving like invisible ghosts and will be polite again.
China and Russia are often saying that western societies are vulnerable because freedom of speech, but it becomes true only if the internet exists.
I personally think that online hate will force society to work on the cause of hate, so in the end society will be more cautious about hateful ideologies, but we might also work on poverty, lack of education and mental illness which are often the cause of hate speech. The population will naturally become more aware of the implication of their extreme opinions, and learn to moderate their speech to let other answers happen.
In the end I think we're already benefiting a lot from the internet, it's just that the problems it create are more visible.
The problem is malignant anonymity and online trust. Once the internet is more focused on local problems, people will stop behaving like invisible ghosts and will be polite again.