Racism on Social Media 2018-2020

Date of request: January 22, 2021
Reference: 091/21

Request

Would you please be able to tell me, for each of the last three years:

– The number of allegations you’ve received about racism on social media

– The number of arrests made in relation to alleged racism on social media

– The number of charges in relation to alleged racism on social media

– If available, could you please provide a breakdown of which social media site the complaints related to

Response

Please be aware that the information collected for this request was identified using a key text search of the Modus Operandi (MO) where a racial ‘hate crime’ tag was attributed to the occurrence.

Please note, key word searches are problematic and they do not in any way provide an accurate response. For example, if the key words ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’, ‘Instagram’ and ‘Snapchat’ have not been mentioned in the MO the data will not be returned. Additionally should a ‘hate crime’ tag not have been applied to the occurrence it will not have been included in the figures below.

Please find below a breakdown of all occurrences where the above keywords were mentioned and a racial hate crime tag was attributed.

Year	Facebook	Twitter	Instagram	Snapchat
2018	33	4	4	6
2019	50		12	10
2020	58	9	26	21

Please find below a breakdown of the occurrences where an arrest took place.

Year	Facebook	Twitter	Instagram	Snapchat
2018	3	4	4	4
2019	3	4	4	4
2020	5	6	6	6

Please find below a breakdown of the number of individuals who were recorded against outcome ‘OC01- charged/summonsed’.

Year	Facebook	Twitter	Instagram	Snapchat
2018	0	0	0	0
2019	2	3	3	3
2020	4	6	6	6