Hate speech in e-sports primarily motivated by sexism

Using a data set of Twitch, Instagram and Twitter posts, ARAG insurance and Signify analysed hate speech in e-sports. The data set of 5.5 million posts shows: Only just under one per cent of interactions were abusive, but almost half of these were motivated by sexism or homophobia.

ARAG Insurance and the Signify Technology Group have conducted a study on the topic of hate speech in e-sports. According to the authors, the results were surprising, with significantly fewer hate comments than expected: Within three months, around 5.5 million posts and comments on the content of 250 e-athletes on Twitch, Instagram and Twitter were analysed. According to the study, this included 52,000 allegedly abusive posts and 1,400 clearly abusive posts, which corresponds to less than one per cent. Of the abusive posts, ten per cent also contained content glorifying violence. The study emphasises that so-called pile-ons, snowball effects in which posters of hate content confirmed and incited each other, occurred primarily in live twitch chats. The authors emphasise chat moderation as an effective countermeasure.

Both glorification of violence and pile-on effects were considered in a separate case study within the study. A third case study deals with the topic of sexual harassment. 43 per cent and therefore almost half of the posts identified as abusive fall under this category. Interesting observation: sexual harassment towards women and men is distributed roughly equally in the study material, with references to homosexuality being used more frequently as an insult towards men.

In terms of game titles, "Fortnite" received the most abusive mail against e-athletes at 51 per cent. "League of Legends" is in second place with just under half of the "Fortnite" posts.

Based on the relatively low hate speech rate of just under one per cent within the data set, the insurance company concludes that self-regulation by the community works in the e-sports contexts examined. "ARAG has long been committed to combating hate speech in e-sports - including through our 'For a Good Game' initiative. The results of our study now show that such efforts are bearing fruit. We can make a difference if we continue to take targeted action against hate speech together," says Florian Ohldag, who supports the e-sports commitment in the ARAG SE marketing team. ARAG intends to use the insights gained from the study for measures to improve the e-sports community.