Humour as an online safety issue: Exploring solutions to help platforms better address this form of expression

Abstract

This paper makes a case for addressing humour as an online safety issue so that social media platforms can include it in their risk assessments and harm mitigation strategies. We take the ‘online safety’ regulation debate, especially as it is taking place in the UK and the European Union, as an opportunity to reconsider how and when humour targeted at historically marginalised groups can cause harm. Drawing on sociolegal literature, we argue that in their online safety efforts, platforms should address lawful humour targeted at historically marginalised groups because it can cause individual harm via its cumulative effects and contribute to broader social harms. We also demonstrate how principles and concepts from critical humour studies and Feminist Standpoint Theory can help platforms assess the differential impacts of humour.