"Digital hate speech and meme warfare within social-media comment threads remain insufficiently explored, although they strongly shape online polarisation and the quality of democratic discourse. For his PhD, Maher Akraa examines online discussions of student-led protests throughout the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) to investigate the emergence and circulation of textual, memetic, and AI-generated artefacts. Furthermore, he explores how communication-based interventions, facilitated by design-driven tools, may redirect antagonistic exchanges towards constructive dialogue. His aim is to foster empathy, reduce the prevalence of digital hate, and strengthen democratic deliberation.
This study adopts a design-conscious, mixed-methods approach, drawing on an interdisciplinary framework encompassing communication science, design research, media studies, and democracy studies. The analysis is guided by five perspectives: discourse analysis, multimodal rhetoric, network diffusion, platform affordances, and counterspeech or deliberative empathy. It relies solely on publicly accessible threads from major platforms and adheres to strict ethical guidelines.
This research establishes a foundation for investigating the spread of digital hate, by outlining preliminary directions for evaluating communication- and design-based interventions. It also suggests new methods of encouraging dialogue and empathy online, thereby contributing to the objectives of SDG 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions)."
Image: © 2025 Maher Akraa. AI-generated
