Some counterspeakers go it alone, and others work in groups. Individual responses to vitriol can be received very differently than responses from groups. For example, Schieb and Preuss (2016) found that the proportion of counterspeakers to hateful speakers and the intensity of opinion held by the hateful speakers are both important determinants of counterspeakers’ ability to shift opinions. Recent research suggests that counterspeakers working together as a group may improve discourse norms (Garland et al. 2020; Friess et al. 2020) while providing support for their members in a way that contributes to the effort’s sustainability (Buerger 2021). 

Two such groups are Reconquista Internet (based in Germany) and the #iamhere network, which has active groups in at least 17 countries around the world. 

Reconquista Internet (RI) started in late April 2018 after comedian Jan Böhmermann, a German TV-personality, announced the effort during the popular German satire news show Neo Magazin Royal.  Böhmermann posted a link to a private discord group on his Twitter account, and over 8,700 people joined in the first three hours. The group was specifically created to counter the hateful speech being spread by another group - Reconquista Germanica, (RG) “a highly-organized hate group which aimed to disrupt political discussions and promote the right-wing populist, nationalist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)” (Garland et al, 2020,103).

#iamhere is an international collective counterspeech network that was founded in Sweden in 2016, and was still very active at this writing in 2023. It  has over 150,000 members responding to hatred in at least 17 countries. Members of the groups seek out what they consider to be hatred in comment threads of news articles posted on Facebook and then respond together, following a strict set of rules which includes keeping a respectful and non-condescending tone, and not spreading prejudice or rumors.

Responding as a group has several benefits. Multiple counterspeakers working together  can flood a space with counterspeech, diluting the content to which they respond. Our own research has shown that working collectively can have benefits for counterspeakers as well. In her research on #jagärhär (the Swedish branch of #iamhere), Buerger (2021) found that counterspeakers reported feeling braver, more supported, and more capable when they responded as a member of a group than when they did by themselves. 

Many members stated that before joining #jagärhär, they did not feel comfortable contributing to comment sections, since they perceived them as full of “toxic,” “aggressive,” and “hateful comments.” A solitary dissenting voice would draw attention and even sometimes retaliation such as hostile comments or doxxing. But with the #jagärhär model, members counterspeak as a group, leaving each individual less exposed. Members said this left them feeling safer and or “more protected.”