Communications of the ACM
Mapping Online Hate Speech
Credit: L'Espresso
Researchers from the University of Oxford and Addis Ababa University analyzed more than 13,000 comments made by Ethiopians on 1,055 Facebook pages during four months around the time of Ethiopia's general election last year in an effort to map out hate speech on social media. Using a representative sample of total online statements, they found only a marginal percentage, 0.7 percent, of statements could be classified as hate speech. The researchers determined fans or followers, and not online influencers, were chiefly responsible for violent or aggressive speech appearing on Facebook pages.
The study implies the individuals have little or no clout and use Facebook to express their anger against more powerful segments of society. About 18 percent of total comments in the sample were written by fans or followers versus 11 percent of comments made by highly influential speakers. In addition, 21.8 percent of hostile comments were based on political differences, only slightly higher than the overall average of 21.4 percent of all conversations containing hostile comments.
The researchers also found religion and ethnicity incited fewer hostile comments. They suggest these findings may have broad ramifications for the many nations attempting to address growing anxiety about how social media provokes radicalization or violence.
From University of Oxford
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Abstracts Copyright © 2016 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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