Gorrell, G., Greenwood, M.A., Roberts, I. et al. (2 more authors) (2018) Twits, Twats and Twaddle: Trends in Online Abuse towards UK Politicians. In: Proceedings Of The Twelfth International Conference On Web And Social Media. International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 25-28 Jun 2018, California, USA. AAAI Press , pp. 600-603. ISBN 978-1-57735-798-8
Abstract
Concerns have reached the mainstream about how social media are affecting political outcomes. One trajectory for this is the exposure of politicians to online abuse. In this paper we use 1.4 million tweets from the months before the 2015 and 2017 UK general elections to explore the abuse directed at politicians. Results show that abuse increased substantially in 2017 compared with 2015. Abusive tweets show a strong relationship with total tweets received, indicating for the most part impersonality, but a second pathway targets less prominent individuals, suggesting different kinds of abuse. Accounts that send abuse are more likely to be throwaway. Economy and immigration were major foci of abusive tweets in 2015, whereas terrorism came to the fore in 2017.
Metadata
Item Type: | Proceedings Paper |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence |
Keywords: | social media analysis; twitter; politics; online abuse |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Computer Science (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 27 Jul 2018 09:38 |
Last Modified: | 19 Dec 2022 13:50 |
Published Version: | http://www.aaai.org/Library/ICWSM/icwsm18contents.... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | AAAI Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:133570 |