Bias Against Asians, Black People, Hispanics/Latines, Jews, and Muslims on Twitter in 2020 and 2021
Location
Sasquatch Room 124 C
Start Date
22-4-2023 10:30 AM
End Date
22-4-2023 11:45 AM
Publication Date
2023
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Law | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Description
Hate speech on social media has been identified as a social problem. However, it is difficult to quantify how widespread hate speech is. We looked at conversations on Twitter about Asians, Black people, Jews, Hispanic/Latino people, and Muslims by manually annotating representative samples of tweets from 2020 and 2021 with the keywords “Asians, Blacks, Jews, Latinos, and Muslims.”
We found between 5 and 17 percent tweets were biased, depending on the keyword and year. This results in an estimated 8.3 million biased tweets during that period. However, there were even more tweets calling out bias against these minority groups, between 19 and 54 percent, depending on the keyword and year, resulting in an estimated 29.2 million tweets calling out bias against these groups from 2020 to 2021.
The forms of stereotypes vary greatly between the different categories of biases. While about a third of all biased tweets were classified as “hatred” against the respective minority, stereotypes in the tweets often matched commonly known stereotypes about the respective minorities. Asians were blamed for the pandemic. Black people were seen as inferior and associated with crime. Jews were seen as powerful, and they were held collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel. Some tweets denied the Holocaust. Hispanics/Latines were portrayed as being illegal in the country and “invaders” in addition to stereotypical allegations of being lazy, stupid, or having too many children. Muslims on the other hand were often blamed collectively for terrorism and violence, however, often in conversations about Muslims in India.
The presentation of the empirical results will be followed by some reflections on the challenges of defining hate speech.
Description Format
html
Recommended Citation
Jikeli, Gunther, "Bias Against Asians, Black People, Hispanics/Latines, Jews, and Muslims on Twitter in 2020 and 2021" (2023). International Conference on Hate Studies. 49.
https://repository.gonzaga.edu/icohs/2023/seventh/49
Full Text of Presentation
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Media Format
flash_audio
Session Title
Promotion of Hate and Violence Through Social Media and Mainstream Sources
Type
Panel
Bias Against Asians, Black People, Hispanics/Latines, Jews, and Muslims on Twitter in 2020 and 2021
Sasquatch Room 124 C
Hate speech on social media has been identified as a social problem. However, it is difficult to quantify how widespread hate speech is. We looked at conversations on Twitter about Asians, Black people, Jews, Hispanic/Latino people, and Muslims by manually annotating representative samples of tweets from 2020 and 2021 with the keywords “Asians, Blacks, Jews, Latinos, and Muslims.”
We found between 5 and 17 percent tweets were biased, depending on the keyword and year. This results in an estimated 8.3 million biased tweets during that period. However, there were even more tweets calling out bias against these minority groups, between 19 and 54 percent, depending on the keyword and year, resulting in an estimated 29.2 million tweets calling out bias against these groups from 2020 to 2021.
The forms of stereotypes vary greatly between the different categories of biases. While about a third of all biased tweets were classified as “hatred” against the respective minority, stereotypes in the tweets often matched commonly known stereotypes about the respective minorities. Asians were blamed for the pandemic. Black people were seen as inferior and associated with crime. Jews were seen as powerful, and they were held collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel. Some tweets denied the Holocaust. Hispanics/Latines were portrayed as being illegal in the country and “invaders” in addition to stereotypical allegations of being lazy, stupid, or having too many children. Muslims on the other hand were often blamed collectively for terrorism and violence, however, often in conversations about Muslims in India.
The presentation of the empirical results will be followed by some reflections on the challenges of defining hate speech.