"You don't get less hate; you just bury it underground and give them they feeling like they're being persecuted. It will make the situation worse, not better."

"You don't get less hate; you just bury it underground and give them they feeling like they're being persecuted. It will make the situation worse, not better." I think the recent rise in white supremacist violence fueled by viral media on mainstream platforms like Youtube and Twitter is a pretty strong argument against this belief. Any content on such large and familiar platforms gets to borrow some sense of legitimacy, and people who consume the content have some plausible deniability. Furthermore, algorithms that favor "engagement" create the exact constrained hate-filled extremist communities you are picturing... but then actively draw users into them from the rest of the platform! http://facebook.com/l.php?u=https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-youtube-drives-viewers-to-the-internets-darkest-corners-1518020478 http://facebook.com/l.php?u=https://www.wsj.com/articles/how... Having this content "above ground" is truly leading to more hate, not just making the existing hate more visible.