Social media platforms face a reckoning over hate speech

Reddit, an online comment forum that is one of the internet's most popular websites, on Monday, June 29, 2020 banned a pro-Donald Trump forum as part of a crackdown on hate speech. Reddit banned a total of 2,000 of these forums, or subreddits, most of which it said were inactive or had few users. — AP

For years, social media platforms have fueled political polarisation and hosted an explosion of hate speech. Now, with four months until the US presidential election and the country’s divisions reaching a boiling point, these companies are upping their game against bigotry and threats of violence.

What’s not yet clear is whether this action is too little, too late – nor whether the pressure on these companies, including a growing advertiser boycott, will be enough to produce lasting change.