Women of color running for Congress disproportionately targeted by offensive speech on X: report  

Congressional candidates who are women, specifically those of color, are more likely than other candidates to be targeted by offensive or hate speech on the social media platform X, according to a new study.  

The analysis, released Wednesday by the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and the University of Pittsburgh, looked at tweets posted between May 20 and Aug. 23 of this year that mentioned any congressional candidate with one or more accounts on X. This equaled about 800,000 posts.  

Researchers found Asian American women candidates for Congress accounted for nearly 23 percent of the tweets that feature offensive speech, defined by the nonprofit as words or phrases that demean, threaten, insult or ridicule a candidate.  

Nearly 21 percent of offensive speech tweets were targeted at African American women congressional candidates, while white women candidates were subject to less at 18 percent, the study found. Slightly fewer Latinx women candidates – 16 percent – were targeted by this type of speech.

Similar trends were observed for hate speech, defined by the CDT as a subset of offensive speech where there is reference to someone’s identity, including their race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.  

This type of speech is prohibited by X, which acknowledged in a blog post last year that “research has shown that some groups of people are disproportionately targeted with abuse online.” 

Less than 1 percent of all tweets mentioning a candidate contained hate speech, researchers noted. 

African American women congressional candidates accounted for nearly 4 percent of the tweets with hate speech, the study said. Researchers said this is seven times more likely than African American men, three times as likely as white women, and more than 18 times as likely as white men.  

The CDT researchers said it is up to social media companies and other stakeholders involved – including AI companies, researchers and political parties – to “act on the reality that identity mediates how people interact with candidates online.” They further encouraged social media platforms to establish specific measures, including clear policies prohibiting attacks against a person based on their identity, to prevent such abuses.  

“The consequences of the status-quo where women of color candidates are targeted with significant attacks online at much higher rates than other candidates creates an immense barrier to creating a truly inclusive democracy,” the study wrote.  

X has repeatedly faced accusations that the platform has not done enough to stop hate speech and online abuse of users in recent years.  

Some critics have pointed the finger on tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who purchased the platform in 2022. The tech mogul took a new approach to the platform’s content policies, cutting back on several moderation features. The lack of moderation prompted various advertisers to flee the site and launch legal inquiries into company practices.     

The Hill reached out to X for further comment.