The Effect of Content Moderation on Online and Offline Hate: Evidence from Germany's NetzDG

Jiménez Durán, Rafael, Müller, Karsten and Carlo Schwarz
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Karsten Müller

No 17554, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We study the online and offline effects of content moderation on social media using the introduction of Germany’s "Network Enforcement Act" (NetzDG), which fines social media platforms failing to remove hateful posts. We show that the law transformed social media discourse: posts became less hateful, refugee-related content less inflammatory, and the use of moderated platforms increased. The NetzDG also had offline effects by reducing anti-refugee hate crimes by 1% for every standard deviation in exposure to far-right social media use. The law reduced hate crimes partly by making it harder for perpetrators to coordinate, without changing attitudes toward refugees.

Keywords: Refugees; Germany; Social media; Hate crime (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 L82 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP17554 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:17554

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP17554

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().