Referee Report 4

The Effect of Content Moderation on Online

and Offline Hate: Evidence from Germany’s
NetzDG
Elizaveta Buriak
Joint Bachelor Program HSE&NES,
3rd grade
20 октября 2023 г.

1. Summary

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are criticized for magnifying
societal tensions, with 40% of Americans having faced online harassment. There is empirical
evidence suggesting that these platforms have contributed to offline hate against ethnic
and religious minorities. Social media giants have taken steps against hate speech: YouTube
since 2006, Facebook since 2012, and Twitter since 2015. However, content moderation
remains a contentious issue, with debates over its adequacy and fears of online censorship.
This research examines the efficacy of the German "Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz"
(NetzDG) or Network Enforcement Act. Introduced on September 1, 2017, in response
to the surge in online hate during the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, the law levied heavy fines
on platforms that failed to act promptly against hate content. The study investigates
if NetzDG led to a reduction in online and offline hatred against refugees, with special
attention to anti-refugee content and hate crimes, especially given the rise of the far-right
party "Alternative für Deutschland"(AfD) which had significant social media presence.
The research used Google’s Perspective API to measure the toxicity of social media
posts. A comparison was made between tweets from "toxic users"and "non-toxic users"
before and after the NetzDG’s implementation. Results showed a significant drop in the
toxicity of tweets post-law enactment, with a 19% decrease in the top decile of toxic users
and a 5% drop for AfD followers.
The second part of the research analyzed the NetzDG’s impact on offline hate
crimes against refugees. The study found a decrease in anti-refugee incidents in areas
with a higher number of AfD Facebook followers. Municipalities with more interactions
on the AfD’s Facebook page also saw a further reduction in hate crimes. The study’s
identification assumption was based on prior hate speech exposure, and various controls
were applied to ensure robustness.

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 Lastly, using a synthetic control method with data from 22 donor countries, the
research estimated that the NetzDG resulted in an annual reduction of 0.03 hate crimes
per 10,000 inhabitants or approximately 250 fewer hate crimes annually.

2. General Comments

I thoroughly enjoyed this article. It addresses pressing and pertinent questions

related to the impact of governmental regulation on social media platforms and the
reduction of global violence levels. The authors provide an expansive and detailed social
and historical context.
The data compiled by the authors is impressive and comprehensive: a database of
refugee-related tweets to analyze the influence of the NetzDG on online content toxicity,
a municipality-quarter panel of anti-refugee incidents, and a cross-country panel of total
hate crimes. For this study, these datasets are virtually exhaustive and instrumental in
deriving the results.
I appreciated the central idea of investigating the influence of a law related to social
media during an event as significant as the sudden influx of migrants. This approach is
advantageous because there’s no need to test the existence or changes in social media
platforms. Instead, the focus is solely on the exogenous shock, which, in essence, is
prolonged.
However, in my view, the article doesn’t sufficiently address alternative explanations
for the patterns observed in the data. Figure 1 clearly showcases a spike in hate, but
it could generally be attributed to the surge in migrant numbers. I mean, there was
a notable increase in migrants in 2015, which might have triggered the spike in hate.
Subsequently, as people adjusted to the situation, the hate level reduced, coinciding with
the implementation of NetzDG. Hence, the NetzDG might not necessarily be explaining
or controlling the online hate level.
Overall, the robustness aspect seems inadequately detailed. I believe it would be
beneficial to elaborate on how alternative hypotheses are tested, the models utilized,
because the current content doesn’t provide complete clarity on this matter.

3. Specific Comments

I found it crucial and compelling that the authors, in various sections of the article,
emphasize and separately consider the effects on the more "affected"areas. They operate
on the assumption that the areas which were more exposed to anti-refugee hate would
find the NetzDG more effective, a perspective I agree with.

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 I think it is reasonable that the authors differentiated and separately examined total
hate crimes and anti-refugee crimes. This distinction allows for a more precise assessment
of the specific law’s impact, as depicted in Figure 5.
On the downside, it would have been highly beneficial to consider other social
media platforms besides Twitter and compare them. It’s unclear if there exists any bias
associated with the intrinsic nature of these platforms.

4. Extension
This study can be expanded and continued in a multitude of ways:
1) Incorporating Additional Social Media Platforms: One could integrate other
social media platforms into the analysis. Is there a discernible difference between users
across platforms? For instance, are Instagram users generally less intellectual than Facebook
users, and as a result, more prone to offline aggressive behavior?
2) Exploring Different Countries: The research could branch out to investigate
the effects in various countries, taking into account the unique cultural, political, and
socio-economic contexts that might influence the dynamics of online hate and its offline
manifestations.
3) Studying Other Exogenous Shocks: Beyond the influx of migrants, there are
numerous other potential shocks that could be investigated, such as political upheavals,
economic downturns, or global health crises. How do such events interact with social
media usage and the propagation of hate?
Given the prevalent discourse on social media and online hate in today’s digital
age, there remains a vast array of unexplored topics and questions. The myriad of
possibilities allows for a deeper understanding of the multifaceted relationship between
online platforms, user behavior, and real-world consequences.