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Social media: don't feed hate

Key points

  • An angry comment or a share to denounce pushes content up: ignore the far right.
  • Don't linger and don't visit their profile: pausing for a few seconds already counts.
  • Don't press "Share"; to show something, use an anonymised screenshot.
  • Report what is illegal (platform, Pharos) and support the people targeted.
  • Like, comment, save, share what you want to see spread; copy the link to spread it elsewhere and add it to your favourites.
  • Calling for a protest: sharing is risk-free, but organising an undeclared demonstration or making threats is punished.

Where to start?

On social media, whatever gets a reaction is shown to more people. An angry comment, a share to denounce or a video watched to the end push far-right content up instead of silencing it. The good news: the same mechanism works the other way.

Why it works

  • Recommendations rely on your interactions: videos you like or share, accounts you follow, comments you post.1
  • Watching a video to the end is a strong signal of interest, weighted more than others.1
  • To the algorithm, an angry comment is still a comment: it counts as interest.1
  • On Instagram, stopping is enough. In Feed, Instagram mainly predicts whether you will spend a few seconds on a post, comment on it, like it, share it or tap the author's profile photo. In Explore, the key actions are likes, saves and shares, and a post's popularity matters "much more" there than in Feed: your reactions also show it to strangers.2
  • Anger at "the other side" spreads best. Across 2.7 million Facebook and Twitter posts, those about the opposing political camp were shared about twice as often as others; each word referring to it raised the odds of sharing by 67%. The most frequent reaction was anger.3
  • Algorithms are not neutral. On Twitter, in 6 of 7 countries studied (including France), mainstream right-wing politicians were amplified more by the algorithm than left-wing ones; the study did not, however, find an advantage for the extremes over moderates.4 In Germany, before the 2025 federal election, new accounts equally interested in the four main parties were recommended, among party content from accounts they did not follow, 78% pro-AfD (far-right) content on TikTok and 64% on X.5
  • "Strategic silence" comes from journalism. Newsrooms long chose not to cover some topics (suicides, violence) so as not to spread them.6 Between 2016 and 2018, hate groups used media coverage, including critical coverage, to spread their messages.7

Don't push them up

  • Don't comment, don't reply, even to disagree: you give them visibility.
  • Never link, repost or quote far-right content, even to denounce it: every click, view or share counts as interest for the original account.1
  • Don't press "Share", even to send the content in a private message or copy its link: a share, even a private one, is a signal of interest.1
  • To show it or respond, take a screenshot: hide the account's name, picture and handle, and post it on your own post. The content is visible without sending traffic or engagement to its author.
  • Keep the link to yourself: note it separately (with the date) if you need to report it to Pharos or pass it to a lawyer, but don't publish it.
  • Scroll past: leave the video straight away, don't watch it to the end. Even a few seconds' pause is counted.2
  • Don't visit their profile or stories, even to mock them: Instagram takes into account how often you view and interact with an account to rank it higher for you.2
  • Use "Not interested" and hide the creator: you will see less of that kind of content.1 On Instagram, the post disappears immediately and similar suggestions decrease; you can also mute an account (it isn't told) or snooze suggested posts for 30 days.82
  • Block or mute accounts that harass you, without replying. Block to protect yourself, not to push the account down: Instagram does not present blocking as a ranking signal.2 And don't browse their profile first.
  • Report illegal content (incitement to hatred, threats, glorifying violence) to the platform and on PHAROS — Signaler un contenu illicite. On Instagram, a report also helps rank similar content lower.2 Don't mass-report content that is merely shocking: it doesn't work and can backfire on you.

Ignoring is not keeping quiet

Ignoring an account does not mean letting it happen:

  • Talk about the ideas, not the account: respond on your own posts, without quoting, tagging or linking the original account.
  • Support the people targeted, privately or publicly: they need you, the attacking account does not.
  • Report what is illegal (see above): it is the only useful direct response.

Push up what matters

  • Like, comment, save, share the content you want to see spread: independent media, collectives, testimonies. It's the same lever, used for your causes.2
  • Share for real: in a message to a specific person, or in a story. Platforms count shares: Instagram cites content "liked, shared, saved or commented on",2 TikTok videos you "like or share".1
  • Copy the link to spread it elsewhere: messaging, another network, a website. The content circulates without depending on the algorithm. However, platforms don't say whether copying a link counts as a share in their ranking: combine it with a real share, and don't rely on it alone.
  • Add it to your favourites or save it: Instagram cites saved content among its signals;2 TikTok presents favourites as a way to indicate what you like, without detailing their weight.1 It is free, discreet and involves no public comment.
  • Anonymity: a link copied from the app often contains an ID tied to your account, which public tools can trace back.9 To stay anonymous, delete everything after the "?" before posting it.
  • The opposite of what we do with the far right: for content we want to push up, we share, save and favourite it; for theirs, a screenshot, never "Share" (see above).
  • Watch it to the end and subscribe. On Instagram, add those accounts to your Favorites: their posts move up in your feed.8
  • Reply to people who have doubts or are being targeted, not to the accounts stirring up hate (talk to your loved ones).

Calling for a protest online

  • Sharing a declared demonstration (date, place, organisers): no risk.
  • Organising an undeclared or banned demonstration: the organiser risks up to 6 months in prison and a €7,500 fine.10 A post setting the place and time can be enough to make you the organiser: declare it, or let a collective or a union do so.
  • Calling for a school blockade: staying inside a school to disturb its peace is punishable by 1 year in prison and a €7,500 fine.11 See the high-school guide.
  • Never call for violence or make threats, even as a joke or in anger: a written threat, including online, is punishable by 6 months in prison and a €7,500 fine, and by 3 years and €45,000 if it is a death threat.12 See also Why property gets smashed at protests.

Bots and coordinated campaigns

Part of the hate online is manufactured. Viginum, the French State service that watches for foreign digital interference, has documented 77 operations run since 2023 by the Russian Storm-1516 network: fake accounts and coordinated spreading to disrupt public debate in France, notably during the 2024 legislative election.13

In one of these situations? on social media, facing hate · a civil servant or public employee

Sources

Each note links to the source of the information.

  1. TikTok — How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Instagram — Instagram Ranking Explained · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  3. Rathje, Van Bavel, van der Linden — Out-group animosity drives engagement on social media (PNAS, 2021) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  4. Huszár et al. — Algorithmic amplification of politics on Twitter (PNAS, 2022) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  5. Global Witness — TikTok and X recommend pro-AfD content to non-partisan users ahead of the German elections (2025) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  6. Donovan and boyd — Stop the Presses? Moving From Strategic Silence to Strategic Amplification (2019) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  7. Whitney Phillips, Data & Society — The Oxygen of Amplification (2018) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  8. Instagram — How to See More of What You Want on Instagram · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩

  9. BehindIt — revealing who shared an Instagram or TikTok link (GitHub) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  10. Service-Public — Organising demonstrations, marches or gatherings on public roads · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  11. Club des juristes — Can one legally call for blocking universities and high schools? · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  12. French Criminal Code, article 222-17 (Légifrance) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  13. French Foreign Ministry — France condemns the Russian actors behind Storm-1516 (Viginum) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

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