Power of words online vs offline --- Carlos, on the other hand the power of a spoken/written word seems to be orders of magnitude higher in the online space. While understanding the difference between extremism and freedom of speech in some 'edge' cases might not have been critical in the offline world - the most one could do is incite few people around himself while shouting in the park - with online world this is a game-changer: each twitter post can be seen by thousands, if not millions.

"Influencers" take this title with pride: they really influence people's views merely by sharing opinions/stories. Blocking hate speech and violence incitement is one option - when it is clear and direct (though the question remains who should do this - platforms, governments ,or both?); but what when the comments/posts are not so clear-cut - they don't directly call for violence, but it is clear they can incite masses for action? Trump comes as a natural example - but then again, he was a President so it maters; but there are many other examples.

Is, therefore, violent extremism (speech) online actually more dangerous?

Source author: Vladimir Radunovic vladar@diplomacy.edu