Hate and harassment proliferates through social media, ADL survey finds

About a quarter of Americans experienced severe harassment on social media in the past year, an increase from 18% in 2023, according to an ADL report titled “Online Hate and Harassment: The American Experience 2024” published on Tuesday.

The survey of 2,479 individuals 18 and over was conducted from January 19 through February 5, 2024, by YouGov on behalf of the ADL Center for Technology and Society. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points among the total sample.

The youth survey of 532 13–17-year-old teens was also conducted on behalf of ADL by YouGov from January 25 through February 5, 2024. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of youth is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

According to the survey, LGBTQ+ community members experienced the highest volume of online harassment of the marginalized groups surveyed, with an increase in the number of physical threats from 6% in 2023 to 14% of people from this group experiencing harassment.

Transgender people, as a subgroup, reported severe harassment to an even higher degree from last year, with an increase from 30% to 45%.

Among Jewish adults, two-thirds perceived themselves as being less safe compared to the previous year. A third of Jews reported being harassed for religion, and four in ten have changed their behavior online to avoid being recognized as Jewish. A quarter avoid engaging with content on the Israel-Hamas war for fear of being targeted or harassed.

Following members of the LGBTQ+ community, Black and Muslim Americans were the second and third most harassed minority groups, according to the survey. Among Muslim Americans, 47% experienced harassment online.

Teenagers respond to survey

According to the youth survey, half of teenagers experience online harassment to any degree of severity. 

In both surveys, it was concluded that Facebook is the platform where most harassment occurs at 61% of total online harassment. Among teenagers, Instagram is the second platform where harassment most occurs. 

Harassment remained at 27 percent on X, formerly Twitter, and increased on WhatsApp to 25 percent from 14 percent in 2023, and on Telegram to 13 percent from 7 percent in 2023.

To address online hate and harassment, the ADL recommends that the federal government should broaden data access for researchers and require technology companies to standardize transparency reporting and broaden data access. They also recommended messaging platforms to strengthen their anti-hate policies and invest in tools to combat hate and harassment. 

In addition, the ADL recommended platforms should implement reporting tools and features to improve abuse reporting and that the platforms should invest in trust and safety.