Characterizing the Demographics Behind the #BlackLivesMatter Movement

TL;DR

This study analyzes Twitter data related to #BlackLivesMatter to quantify demographic biases among users, revealing higher engagement and activity levels among African-American users and discussing ethical considerations in such research.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed demographic analysis of #BlackLivesMatter Twitter users, highlighting biases and engagement patterns across race, gender, and age.

Findings

African-American users are more engaged with the hashtag.

African-American users are more active than other groups.

The study discusses ethical considerations in social media research.

Abstract

The debates on minority issues are often dominated by or held among the concerned minority: gender equality debates have often failed to engage men, while those about race fail to effectively engage the dominant group. To test this observation, we study the #BlackLivesMatter}movement and hashtag on Twitter--which has emerged and gained traction after a series of events typically involving the death of African-Americans as a result of police brutality--and aim to quantify the population biases across user types (individuals vs. organizations), and (for individuals) across various demographics factors (race, gender and age). Our results suggest that more African-Americans engage with the hashtag, and that they are also more active than other demographic groups. We also discuss ethical caveats with broader implications for studies on sensitive topics (e.g. discrimination, mental health, or religion) that focus on users.