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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.22503/inftars.XXV.2025.3.4
Nyelv: en
Cím: Unpacking the effects of user anonymity and user popularity on the intensity and diffusion of hate speech on Twitter (X) in Afghanistan
Absztrakt: The spread of hate speech on social media, along with its psychological and socialharms, potentially even hate crimes, has raised concerns among citizens and policymakers.In response, scholars have explored strategies to reduce hate speech’svirality and thus its harms. Using a corpus of 3,210 comments in Persian and Pashtuposted by Twitter users in Afghanistan, we examined how users’ anonymity andpopularity affect the intensity and diffusion of hate speech. In a series of binarylogistic and multiple regression analyses, anonymity showed positive relationshipswith hate speech’s intensity and diffusion on Twitter, whereas user popularity wasnegatively associated with these factors. A social network analysis also revealed thatanonymous accounts were the core nodes in the hate speech cluster and suggesteda peer-to-peer (i.e., anonymous user to anonymous user) pattern of interaction. Bycontrast, non-anonymous users tended to avoid interaction with their anonymouscounterparts.
Kulcsszavak: Afghanistan, anonymity, hate speech diffusion, hate speech intensity, Twitter, user popularity