2015/12/17 by Alexandra Olteanu, Ingmar Weber, Olteanu, Alexandra +3 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #H.3.5 #Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection #K.4.2 #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Social Media and Politics #Social and Information Networks (cs.SI)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1512.05671
openalex publication_date 2015/12/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The debates on minority issues are often dominated by or held among the concerned minority: gender equality debates have often failed to engage men, while those about race fail to effectively engage the dominant group. To test this observation, we study the #BlackLivesMattermovement and hashtag on Twitter--which has emerged and gained traction after a series of events typically involving the death of African-Americans as a result of police brutality--and aim to quantify the population biases across user types (individuals vs. organizations), and (for individuals) across various demographics factors (race, gender and age). Our results suggest that more African-Americans engage with the hashtag, and that they are also more active than other demographic groups. We also discuss ethical caveats with broader implications for studies on sensitive topics (e.g. discrimination, mental health, or religion) that focus on users.