BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A series of competitive workshops will teach high school and undergraduate students from around the world how to recognize, monitor and track the growing number of messages that contain hate speech on Twitter.
The 2023 Datathon and Machine Learning Competition is hosted by the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University Bloomington, which has published several studies on antisemitism in Twitter conversations. The competition will focus on online hate speech against people who are Asian, Black, Jewish, Hispanic/Latine and Muslim. It comes at a time when the United States is grappling with a rise in antisemitism, fueled by comments from high-profile celebrities.
“Online hate speech often goes unchecked, so teaching students how to recognize and call it out is essential to reducing its spread online,” said Günther Jikeli, associate director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and the Erna B. Rosenfeld Professor in Jewish Studies. “This competition will expose students to the threats online hate speech pose and give them the tools to respond.”
The competition includes three online workshops led by IU professors, which will be followed by a datathon and hackathon. Students will be placed into international teams and learn how to create, label and analyze linguistic data from Twitter. They will also learn how to create and use machine-learning algorithms to recognize hate speech.
The top three teams will be awarded a $500, $300 or $200 Amazon gift card.
The competition will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. Jan. 15, 22 and 29. It is open to high school and undergraduate students from all countries. All workshops will be conducted over Zoom, so access to a computer with an internet connection is required.
Individuals or groups must apply to participate by Dec. 15.
