From Hashtag to Hate Crime: Twitter and Antiminority Sentiment

Karsten Müller and Carlo Schwarz

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2023, vol. 15, issue 3, 270-312

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.

JEL-codes: D72 J15 K42 L82 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Working Paper: From Hashtag to Hate Crime: Twitter and Anti-Minority Sentiment (2022)
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DOI: 10.1257/app.20210211

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