An Amnesty International study in 2018 found that Black women are the most harassed group on Twitter. A recent report in The Washington Post showed that even though Facebook knew its algorithms were disproportionately harming black and minority users, the social media giant chose to do nothing.
Analysis from a disinformation tracking site that examines Twitter accounts that violate service terms shows a pattern of hate messages directed at Meghan Markle. The Duchess of Sussex is one of the most prominent women of color in the world. The analysis by Bot Sentinel suggests attacks on Markle came primarily from robots, not from random user accounts, which is common. In the case of the Markle message, however, the accounts were not recently created.
“A lot of these people are middle aged white women. I mean, it is, but that's, you know, that's what they are. And they have been coordinating this for roughly three years,” Bot Sentinel founder Christopher Bouzy told And Another Thing.
“We were seeing repeated now how some of the same tropes and stereotypes are simply ones from offline, so to speak, and they're all online now, particularly within social media,” UMass Assistant Professor of Communication Demetria Shabazz told And Another Thing.
