Digital Library
Online Hate and Harassment The American Experience 2023
Topic:
General/Other
Principal Investigators:
ADL Center for Technology and Society
Study Date:
2023
Source:
Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
Key Findings:
ADL conducts this nationally representative survey annually to find out how many American adults experience hate or harassment on social media. The 2023 survey was conducted in March and April 2023 and spans the preceding 12 months. Online hate and harassment remain persistent and entrenched problems on social media platforms:
52% of American adults have ever experienced harassment on social media, up from 40% in 2022.
33% of adults experienced some form of harassment in the past 12 months, up from 23% in 2022.
47% of LGBQ+ people, 38% of Black/African Americans, and 38% of Muslims were harassed online, in the past 12 months.
80% of Jewish people were worried about being harassed for their religion compared to 41% of non-Jews.
51% of teens experienced some form of harassment in the past 12 months, compared to 36% in 2022.
76% of transgender people, the most targeted demographic group, have ever been harassed online, 60% severely.
Recommendations:
-Social media companies should enforce hate and harassment policies transparently, equitably, and at scale. This includes limiting high-profile user exceptions and other loopholes that make policies less effective.
-Social media companies should adopt and implement ADL’s recommended tools and anti-hate by design principles to support targets of harassment, such as allowing users to report multiple harmful comments at once (batch reporting), to enable trusted others to moderate their accounts (delegated access) and to report related activity.
-At the federal level, legislators should mandate transparency reporting and outlaw doxing. Additionally, regulators should increase consumer protection efforts to disincentivize harmful business practices.
Methodology:
The annual online hate and harassment survey of American adults is conducted on behalf of ADL by YouGov, a public opinion and data analytics firm. The survey examines American adults’ experiences with and views of online hate and harassment. A total of 2,139 completed surveys were collected to form a nationally representative base of Americans age 18 and older, including oversamples from those who self-identified as Jewish, Muslim, Black or African-American, Asian American, Hispanic or Latino, Transgender, or LGBQ+. This was also the first year that ADL oversampled transgender respondents separate from LGBQ+ respondents. ADL oversampled the Jewish population until at least 500 Jewish Americans responded. For other oversampled target groups, responses were collected until at least 200 Americans were represented from each. Data was weighted on the basis of age, gender identity, race, census region, and education to adjust for national representation. All respondents were based in the United States, and the survey was conducted in English.
YouGov surveys are taken independently online by a prescreened set of panelists representing many demographic categories. Panelists are weighted for statistical relevance to national demographics. Participants are rewarded for general participation in YouGov surveys, but ADL did not directly reward them for their participation in this survey. Surveys were conducted from March 7-24, 2023.
The surveys asked about lifetime experiences online as well as experiences in the past 12 months. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of respondents is plus or minus two percentage points. Unless otherwise noted, year-over-year differences are statistically significant at the 90% confidence level or higher.
The youth survey of 550 13-17-year-olds was also conducted on behalf of ADL by YouGov. Surveys were conducted from March 23-April 6, 2023. The survey examines American teens’ experiences with and views of online hate and harassment. Data was weighted on the basis of age, gender identity, and race to adjust for national representation. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of youth is plus or minus four percentage points.