Out of Stock: Empty Shelves, Empty Discussions

How variety falls by the wayside when individual voices are weeded out of the internet

Online hate has impacts that extend far beyond personal victimization: all of us are intimidated when we see others attacked, threatened or publicly vilified. The result is that many people no longer dare to express their opinions publicly—either online or offline. This is the “silencing” effect. Silencing undermines variety in discussion, because certain subjects simply don’t come up anymore, or they are addressed only from one side.

This shifts societal boundaries: hate that becomes socially acceptable online then shapes discussions in “analog” life. In particular, politically engaged individuals, women and minorities experience severe hostility and withdraw from interactions or cease their activities. New studies show that more than half of people active in politics have experienced hate; many of them change the way they practice politics, some of them even decide not to run for office anymore because of this. Thus, silencing on the internet affects all of us: when the spectrum of voices and perspectives shrinks, an essential pillar of democracy begins to falter.