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From Hashtag to Hate Crime: Twitter and Antiminority Sentiment

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  • Karsten Müller
  • Carlo Schwarz

Abstract

We study whether social media can amplify antiminority sentiment with a focus on Donald Trump's political rise. Using an instrumental variable strategy based on Twitter's early adopters at the South by Southwest festival in 2007, we find that higher Twitter use in a county is associated with a sizeable increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes after the 2016 presidential primaries. Trump's tweets about Muslims predict increases in xenophobic tweets by his followers, cable news mentions of Muslims, and hate crimes on the following days. These results suggest that social media content can affect real-life outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Karsten Müller & Carlo Schwarz, 2023. "From Hashtag to Hate Crime: Twitter and Antiminority Sentiment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 270-312, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:15:y:2023:i:3:p:270-312
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20210211
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    Cited by:

    1. Tähtinen, Tuuli, 2024. "When Facebook Is the Internet: The Role of Social Media in Ethnic Conflict," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    2. Millimet, Daniel L., 2024. "(Don't) Walk This Way: The Econometrics of Crosswalks," IZA Discussion Papers 17154, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Aşık, Gunes A. & Mocan, Naci, 2024. "The Signaling Value of Government Action: The Effect of Istanbul Convention on Female Murders," IZA Discussion Papers 17465, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Carlos Arcila Calderón & Patricia Sánchez Holgado & Jesús Gómez & Marcos Barbosa & Haodong Qi & Alberto Matilla & Pilar Amado & Alejandro Guzmán & Daniel López-Matías & Tomás Fernández-Villazala, 2024. "From online hate speech to offline hate crime: the role of inflammatory language in forecasting violence against migrant and LGBT communities," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Müller, Karsten & Pan, Yuanyuan & Schwarz, Carlo, 2023. "Social Media and Stock Market Participation," CEPR Discussion Papers 18445, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Jiménez Durán, Rafael & Muller, Karsten & Schwarz, Carlo, 2024. "The Effect of Content Moderation on Online and Offline Hate: Evidence from Germany’s NetzDG," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 701, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    7. Boken, Johannes & Draca. Mirko & Mastrorocco, Nicola & Ornaghi, Arianna, 2023. "The Returns to Viral Media : The Case of US Campaign Contributions," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1472, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    8. Sardoschau, Sulin & Casanueva, Annalí, 2024. "Public Signal and Private Action: Right-wing Protest and Hate Crimes against Refugees," VfS Annual Conference 2024 (Berlin): Upcoming Labor Market Challenges 302408, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Ruben Enikolopov & Maria Petrova & Gianluca Russo & David Yanagizawa-Drott, 2024. "Socializing Alone: How Online Homophily Has Underminded Social Cohesion in the US," CESifo Working Paper Series 11375, CESifo.
    10. Maaß, Sabrina & Wortelker, Jil & Rott, Armin, 2024. "Evaluating the regulation of social media: An empirical study of the German NetzDG and Facebook," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5).
    11. Du, Rui & Mino, Ajkel & Wang, Jianghao & Zheng, Siqi, 2024. "Transboundary vegetation fire smoke and expressed sentiment: Evidence from Twitter," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    12. Guy Aridor & Rafael Jiménez-Durán & Ro'ee Levy & Lena Song, 2024. "The Economics of Social Media," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1422-1474, December.
    13. Alexis Du & Thomas Renault, 2024. "Social media and suicide: empirical evidence from the quasi-exogenous geographical adoption of Twitter," Papers 2412.03217, arXiv.org.
    14. Gisli Gylfason, 2023. "From Tweets to the Streets: Twitter and Extremist Protests in the United States," PSE Working Papers halshs-04188189, HAL.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

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