IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/i4rdps/246.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A comment on "From Hashtag to Hate Crime: Twitter and Antiminority Sentiment"

Author

Listed:
  • Akhtar, Shumi
  • Hoang-Le, Kien
  • Liu, Haoxuan
  • Vangal, Vidhulaa

Abstract

Karsten Müller and Carlo Schwarz (2022) investigate the impact of Twitter on anti-Muslim hate crimes, demonstrating that higher Twitter usage correlates with increased hate crimes, particularly during Donald Trump's political rise. Their findings highlight social media's ability to amplify xenophobic attitudes and translate online rhetoric into real-world violence. Our replication confirms the main findings, showing that a one standard deviation increase in Twitter usage is associated with a 32% rise in hate crimes. While minor rounding differences exist, our computational results align with the original study, reinforcing the robustness of its empirical framework. Extending the analysis, we show heterogeneity in Twitter's impact, finding that weighting by Muslim population share strengthens the effect, whereas population-weighted estimates yield a weaker relationship, suggesting demographic composition plays a crucial role. Additionally, our urban-rural analysis reveals that Twitter's influence on hate crimes is significantly stronger in urban areas, likely due to higher connectivity and media exposure. Finally, we assess educational attainment, demonstrating that higher education mitigates the amplification of anti-Muslim tweets into hate crimes. These findings underscore the need for policy interventions, including digital literacy programs, targeted content moderation, and algorithmic adjustments, to curb online hate speech and its offline consequences.

Suggested Citation

  • Akhtar, Shumi & Hoang-Le, Kien & Liu, Haoxuan & Vangal, Vidhulaa, 2025. "A comment on "From Hashtag to Hate Crime: Twitter and Antiminority Sentiment"," I4R Discussion Paper Series 246, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:246
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/321373/1/I4R-DP246.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ying Bao & Jessie Liu, 2025. "Spiral of Silence: Polarizing Content Creation through Moderating Toxicity," CESifo Working Paper Series 12008, CESifo.
    2. Tähtinen, Tuuli, 2024. "When Facebook Is the Internet: The Role of Social Media in Ethnic Conflict," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    3. Mathieu Couttenier & Sophie Hatte & Lucile Laugerette & Tommaso Sonno, 2025. "Dear Brothers and Sisters: Pope's Speeches and the Dynamics of Conflict in Africa," Working Papers hal-05029770, HAL.
    4. Battisti, Michele & Kauppinen, Ilpo & Rude, Britta, 2024. "Breaking the silence: The effects of online social movements on gender-based violence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. 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).
    6. Ticku, Rohit & Venkatesh, Raghul S., 2025. "Economics of majoritarian identity politics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 56-78.
    7. Gallice, Andrea & Grillo, Edoardo, 2025. "Shifting social norms through endorsements," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    8. 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).
    9. Gisli Gylfason, 2023. "From Tweets to the Streets: Twitter and Extremist Protests in the United States," PSE Working Papers halshs-04188189, HAL.
    10. 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.
    11. Maurizio Pugno, 2024. "Creativity, well-being, and economic development: An evolutionary approach," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 205-225, January.
    12. Müller, Karsten & Pan, Yuanyuan & Schwarz, Carlo, 2023. "Social Media and Stock Market Participation," CEPR Discussion Papers 18445, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Sardoschau, Sulin & Gulino, Giorgio & Masera, Federico, 2025. "Identity Under Scrutiny: Media Attention and Rule Compliance," IZA Discussion Papers 17888, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Sardoschau, Sulin & Casanueva-Artís, Annalí, 2025. "The Cost of Tolerating Intolerance: Right-Wing Protest and Hate Crimes," IZA Discussion Papers 17763, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Balbuzanov, Ivan & Gars, Jared & Stalinski, Mateusz & Tjernstrom, Emilia, 2025. "Incentivizing Engagement : Experimental Evidence on Journalist Performance Pay," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1570, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    16. Balbuzanov, Ivan & Gars, Jared & Stalinski, Mateusz & Tjernström, Emilia, 2025. "Incentivizing Engagement: Experimental Evidence on Journalist Performance Pay," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 763, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    17. 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).
    18. Tähtinen, Tuuli, 2025. "Populism and ideological convergence: Evidence from a multiparty system," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    19. 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.
    20. 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," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:246. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.i4replication.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.