Feb. 28, 2024
As the use of digital technologies becomes more widespread, so can the potential for its harmful effects, like online hate speech. Hacking4Humanity, a hackathon open to undergraduate and graduate students, aims to mitigate these harms.
Taking both technology and policy approaches, students have the opportunity to collaborate to create innovative solutions to online hate speech. The 2024 Hackathon, which took place from Feb. 9-16 in Duquesne University’s Power Center, awarded a team from the Pitt School of Computing and Information (SCI) the first-place prize for the technology track of the hackathon.
Winners Rory McCann, Chase Lahner, Ivan Puri, and Holden Gent, all majoring in computer science expected to graduate in 2026, won the technology track with their submission, HateBot. HateBot is a robot on the platform Discord, a platform where users can communicate with each other via livestreaming, video chat, and text. While the platform is moderated to filter out hate speech, 1 in 10 players between the ages of 13 and 17 have been exposed to hate speech on the platform, like white supremacist messages. HateBot monitors Discord servers by logging flagged messages, evaluating them, and sending out educational messages to users in response to the speech. HateBot aims to educate users and encourage them to communicate thoughtfully.
Hacking4Humanity is supported by organizations here at the University of Pittsburgh, along with Duquesne University and Carnegie Mellon University. Learn more about Hacking4Humanity and its collaborators here and watch the recording of the Hackathon here.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Hacking4Humanity Hackathon!
Update (April 9, 2024): On March 22, the first-place winners presented HateBot to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at his residence. The invitation was a groundbreaking opportunity for the students to showcase their innovative technology solution to online hate speech, as well as for SCI to exhibit the achievements of their talented students.
--Alyssa Morales