Bakir, M.E. orcid.org/0000-0002-3012-8713, Farrell, T. and Bontcheva, K. orcid.org/0000-0001-6152-9600 (2024) Abuse in the time of COVID-19: the effects of Brexit, gender and partisanship. Online Information Review, 48 (5). 5. pp. 1045-1062. ISSN 1468-4527
Abstract
Purpose
The authors investigate how COVID-19 has influenced the amount, type or topics of abuse that UK politicians receive when engaging with the public.
Design/methodology/approach
This work covers the first year of COVID-19 in the UK, from March 2020 to March 2021 and analyses Twitter abuse in replies to UK MPs. The authors collected and analysed 17.9 million reply tweets to the MPs. The authors present overall abuse levels during different key moments of the pandemic, analysing reactions to MPs by gender and the relationship between online abuse and topics such as Brexit, the government’s COVID-19 response and policies, and social issues.
Findings
The authors have found that abuse levels towards UK MPs were at an all-time high in December 2020. Women (particularly those from non-White backgrounds) receive unusual amounts of abuse, targeting their credibility and capacity to do their jobs. Similar to other large events like general elections and Brexit, COVID-19 has elevated abuse levels, at least temporarily.
Originality/value
Previous studies analysed abuse levels towards MPs in the run-up to the 2017 and 2019 UK General Elections and during the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. The authors compare previous findings with those of the first year of COVID-19, as the pandemic persisted, and Brexit was forthcoming. This research not only contributes to the longitudinal comparison of abuse trends against UK politicians but also presents new findings, corroborates, further clarifies and raises questions about the previous findings.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-07-2022-0392
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Mehmet Emin Bakir, Tracie Farrell and Kalina Bontcheva.Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and noncommercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode |
Keywords: | Online abuse; British MPs; COVID-19; NLP |
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) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EUROPEAN COMMISSION - HORIZON 2020 871042 ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL ES/T012714/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 04 Feb 2025 08:50 |
Last Modified: | 04 Feb 2025 08:50 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Emerald |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1108/oir-07-2022-0392 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:222420 |