Researchers at the University of Warwick have produced a study that determined that in German towns where Facebook use was higher than average there were a higher number of attacks on refugees.
“That held true in virtually any sort of community — big city or small town; affluent or struggling; liberal haven or far-right stronghold — suggesting that the link applies universally,” wrote Amanda Taub and Max Fisher in a recent New York Times article.
“This paper investigates the link between social media and hate crime using Facebook data,” write the report’s authors, Karsten Muller and Carlo Schwarz, in the report’s abstract.
They note that the recently emerged right-wing party AfD has developed a major social media presence. “We show that right-wing anti-refugee sentiment on Facebook predicts violent crimes against refugees in municipalities with higher social media usage,” write Muller and Schwarz.
Taub and Fisher note in their New York Times article that in the town of Altena, Germany, residents have “seen Facebook rumors portraying refugees as a threat. They’ve encountered racist vitriol on local pages, a jarring contrast with Altena’s public spaces, where people wave warmly to refugee families.”
The report is available for download here.
The Immigration and Refugee News Digest 