A Comparison of Online Hate on Reddit and 4chan: A Case Study of the 2020 US Election

TL;DR

This study compares online hate on Reddit and 4chan during the 2020 US Election using NLP techniques, revealing platform-specific differences in content and activity, and highlighting the importance of cross-platform analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a comparative NLP-based analysis of online hate across Reddit and 4chan during a major political event, emphasizing platform-specific behaviors.

Findings

Content differs significantly between platforms

Posting activity varies depending on the platform

Provides initial insights into platform-specific hate dynamics

Abstract

The rapid integration of the Internet into our daily lives has led to many benefits but also to a number of new, wide-spread threats such as online hate, trolling, bullying, and generally aggressive behaviours. While research has traditionally explored online hate, in particular, on one platform, the reality is that such hate is a phenomenon that often makes use of multiple online networks. In this article, we seek to advance the discussion into online hate by harnessing a comparative approach, where we make use of various Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to computationally analyse hateful content from Reddit and 4chan relating to the 2020 US Presidential Elections. Our findings show how content and posting activity can differ depending on the platform being used. Through this, we provide initial comparison into the platform-specific behaviours of online hate, and how different platforms can serve specific purposes. We further provide several avenues for future research utilising a cross-platform approach so as to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the global hate ecosystem.