A recent report from the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and the University of Pittsburgh reveals that women of color running for Congress in 2024 have been subjected to a disproportionately higher number of attacks on X compared to other candidates.
The report aimed to compare the levels of offensive speech and hate speech directed toward different groups of Congressional candidates based on race and gender, with a particular focus on women of color. To achieve this, the authors analyzed 800,000 tweets over a three-month period, from May 20 to August 23, which included mentions of all candidates running for Congress with accounts on X.
The findings indicate that over 20 percent of posts aimed at Black and Asian women candidates contained offensive language. Additionally, Black women candidates were found to be more frequently targeted with hate speech than other candidates.
Specifically, the report states that, on average, less than 1 percent of all tweets mentioning a candidate involved hate speech. However, it was found that African-American women candidates experienced such posts at a rate of 4 percent. This data aligns with X’s most recent transparency report, which indicates that less than 1 percent of all posts on the platform violate its rules.
The CDT report analyzed both hate speech, which violates X’s policies, and “offensive speech,” defined as language that demeans, threatens, insults, or ridicules a candidate. Although offensive speech may not breach X’s rules, the volume of such attacks could dissuade women of color from running for office. The report recommends specific measures for X and other platforms to counteract these effects, including clear policies prohibiting attacks based on race or gender, greater transparency in handling such attacks, improved reporting and accountability tools, regular risk assessments focusing on race and gender, and privacy-preserving mechanisms for independent researchers to study the data.
The report concludes that the current situation, where women of color candidates face significant online attacks at much higher rates than other candidates, poses a substantial barrier to achieving a truly inclusive democracy.
