Ethnic minority youth see online racist content at least once a week

Young people from black and minority ethnic groups see racist content on their social media feeds at least once a week, Goldsmiths research has revealed.

In a survey of over 800 black and minority ethnic young people from across the UK more than half said that the predominance of online racism made them feel less safe offline, with 42% (about 1 in 2) saying it harmed their mental health.  

The Meta funded report, Youth Race and social media, forms part of the Race and Social Media project with a team comprised of David Woodger, Dr Naomi Thompson, Natalie Law and Leo Freund-Williams. Findings from the research were presented at the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Manchester.  

Alongside the survey of black and other ethnic minority young people in Britain aged between 16 and 24, focus groups and interviews were also conducted with 110. Of those surveyed: 

• 95% had encountered violent or abusive racist content online
• 16% saw racist content online every day, including violence and abuse
• 38% saw racist content at least once a week
• 41% saw racist content “occasionally”, and 4% said they never saw it
• 75% of participants had encountered violent racist images or videos
• 30% said racist material took the form of private messages to them
• 13% said racist material took the form of posts on their own feeds.

The effect of viewing racist content had an impact offline with 58% of the surveyed group saying that it left them feeling less safe and 42% stating that it harmed their mental health. 18% said that the impact of racist content affected their friendships outside of their ethnic group.  

Young women faced particular forms of gendered and racist scrutiny including hyper-sexualisation and insults relating to their physical appearance. 

The research also revealed the lack of action taken by social media providers and public authorities to complaints over racist content. Of those surveyed, 39% had reported the abuse to the social media platform but received no response; 40% reported it but received an unsatisfactory response; 6% reported it and received a satisfactory response; 15% did not report it.  

Only 10% reported racist content to the police, with only 1 in 10 of these receiving a satisfactory response. 

David Woodger continued: 

“A sense of hopelessness and futility often leads them to disengage from certain content or from social media altogether. Young people largely felt that social media platforms were not doing enough to respond to problematic content relating to race and racism. 

“Social media platforms should find new ways to engage and communicate with young people about their experiences and how they might develop more effective responses.”  

The young people surveyed were recruited via social media with 49% identified as Black, 43% as Asian and 8% as from other racially minoritised backgrounds. Study participants said that they checked their social media accounts several times a day, 10% said they checked their social media accounts at least once a day, 2% said they checked a few times a week. Less than 1% said they checked less frequently. 

The report was the first comprehensive study of young BAME groups and their experience of social media platforms in the UK.