Finding Hope Amid Rising Hate: Insights from the Eradicate Hate Global Summit

This year’s Eradicate Hate Global Summit was a sobering reminder of both the scale of hate crimes today and the work still ahead. Hate crimes—targeting individuals based on immutable traits such as race, religion, or sexual orientation—are rising at record rates around the world. In the U.S. alone, reported hate crime incidents hit a 20-year high, with 13,768 incidents in 2023, up from 11,679 in 2022—a sharp rise that demonstrates both the scope of the problem and the urgency of addressing it, according to FBI Crime Statistics.

We're seeing a rise of multi-bias hate crimes as a new type of threat is emerging. Nihlistic violent extremists (NVE) are groups that do not prescribe to specific hate ideologies, but exploit others to erode trust and spread fear and hate by supporting unaligned ideological groups.Hate crimes tend to be more violent than other crimes, with victims more likely to suffer serious injuries so there is natural alignment with NVEs trying to maximize negative impact.

At times, this landscape can feel overwhelming. Yet as the Summit highlighted, there is hope. Research into radicalization shows that with the right interventions, whether through individual outreach, community efforts, or systemic safeguards, it is possible to prevent, deter, and even de-radicalize individuals drawn into harmful ideologies. 

Why People Turn Toward Hate

One key theme was that the path to radicalization is rarely linear. Isolation, a longing to belong, and sometimes trauma can make individuals vulnerable. Many people join extremist groups not out of deep-seated hatred, but because those groups offer acceptance they struggle to find elsewhere.

The FBI’s 2023 data, released last year, shows that race-based bias accounted for 53.2% of all reported hate crimes, with anti-Black crimes occurring at three times the rate of those targeting white or Latino individuals. Religious bias accounted for 23.5% of hate crimes—nearly 10 times more often targeting Jewish people than Muslims. Meanwhile, 17.3% of cases involved sexual orientation bias. Here we see how belonging, identity, and perceived exclusion remain key drivers of radicalization. 

Building Environments That Prevent Hate

Summit sessions highlighted three important layers of prevention:

1. Identify Risk Factors

• Threats to emotional wellness and self-esteem.
• Problematic internet use that fuels dysregulation.
• Perceived unfairness or lack of safety.
• Suppression of critical thinking.
• Isolation that erodes belonging.

Youth are particularly vulnerable: elementary and secondary schools report hate crimes at nearly double the rate of colleges, and ten times higher than other institutions. 

2. Create Pro-Social Environments

One of the most effective tools for combating hate is exposing people in a group of diverse people in a safe environment. 

• Set clear, simple standards for interaction and communicate consequences.
• Foster diverse communities where people connect over shared interests.
• Encourage positive, inclusive participation both online and offline.

3. Enforce Standards Fairly

This means both punishing individuals when they violate those standards and also providing clear information on why they are being punished. Individuals are much likely to feel a sense of fairness if they know everyone is being held against the same standard and are much more likely to not repeat violations if they understand why they are being punished.

• Apply consistent consequences and explain why actions were taken.
• Provide transparency without shame, and acknowledge when reports are resolved.
• Offer pathways to resolution and education to prevent cycles of isolation.
• Escalate extreme cases to specialized professionals when necessary.
  

How Modulate Contributes

At Modulate, we apply these lessons daily. Our products are built to detect harmful language in real time, flagging harassment, hate speech, and extremist rhetoric across voice channels. By leveraging conversational context, emotion detection, and prosocial design principles, our tools help communities enforce fair standards, reduce exposure to harmful content, and create healthier online environments.

The challenges of rising hate are significant, but the Summit reaffirmed that technology, when paired with community leadership and evidence-based prevention strategies, can play a vital role in fostering safer spaces.

Moving Forward

As with fraud prevention and risk management, teams need to “paint the entire picture” and bring stakeholders along on the journey. The same is true for combating hate. Addressing risk factors, building pro-social spaces, and enforcing fair standards requires collaboration across industries, platforms, and communities.

At Modulate, we remain committed to applying our expertise in real-time voice analysis and trust & safety technology to support this work. Hate may be on the rise, but so too are the tools, knowledge, and communities dedicated to countering it.