Insults on social media: Only half of the attacks are reported

How effective are existing mechanisms to report offensive content on social media platforms? This is one of the questions addressed in a study by the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. The background to this is the law against digital violence that is being planned in Germany.

In the study, the bidt research team examines insults that are clearly illegal under German law; that is, so-called violations of personal rights, such as serious denigration, insults using faecal terms or attacks on human dignity. ‘According to current law, these cases would have to be deleted quickly and effectively as soon as they were reported to the platform. However, as our study shows, the reporting options are often not used,’ says Prof. Dr. Hannah Schmid-Petri, holder of the Chair of Science Communication at the University of Passau. She is a member of the bidt's board of directors and co-led the study together with Prof. Dr. Dirk Heckmann, a lawyer at the Technical University of Munich.

More insults in the analogue world than on social media

The results show that those affected still experience insults more often in the offline than in the online world. While around 20 per cent of those surveyed stated that they had been insulted online in the past six months, more than 35 per cent had experienced this offline. According to the survey, people in the public eye are particularly affected. In this group, too, the online and offline worlds differ significantly: among the politicians surveyed, over 80 per cent are exposed to insults online, while in the offline world the figure is 84 per cent. The difference is even more striking for influencers: almost 50 per cent experience insults online, while almost 70 per cent experience them offline. Of those surveyed who appear as private individuals on social media, a relatively small group of 14 per cent report insults in the digital environment, while in the analogue world it is 43 per cent.

Only one in two people affected reports insults on social media

But according to the study, insults are also commonplace on the internet: almost 60 per cent of users state that they have seen someone else being insulted on social media in the past six months. However, the majority of insults on social media are not reported: of those directly affected, almost 46 per cent did not report the posts to either a state or a private body, such as directly on the platform.

Lack of prospects and legal uncertainty are key reasons

According to the bidt researchers, a lack of knowledge about reporting channels, a lack of interest and a sense of hopelessness are key reasons why those affected refrain from reporting. Overall, more than half of those surveyed doubt that they would receive help, both on platforms (57 per cent) and from government agencies (62 per cent). Another reason for not reporting is legal uncertainty for more than a third of users. The level of knowledge about platform regulation is also relatively low. Not even a quarter of those surveyed (24 per cent) had heard of the European Digital Services Act (DSA), which, among other things, provides for reporting channels for illegal content on platforms throughout Europe.

Little trust in state institutions

A lack of trust in state institutions in general could also play a role. Only the police were trusted to a large or very large extent by more than half of the respondents (54 per cent). Trust in the Bundestag, for example, was only 30 per cent. Fewer than half trusted the public prosecutor's office (48 per cent) and the national courts (46 per cent).

The researchers recommend

According to the authors of the study, in order to increase trust in law enforcement, this trust would have to be strengthened in state institutions. The study also concludes that simple, transparent reporting channels should be made better known, general knowledge about them should be imparted, and the means of law enforcement should be improved.

Background to the study

The study is part of the bidt research project ‘Challenges of Regulating Digital Communication Platforms’. In June and July 2024, the market research institute Ipsos, on behalf of bidt, surveyed 5,000 people living in Germany who are 18 years of age or older, have internet access, and use social media (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, X or/and LinkedIn) at least once a week.

Source: bidt press release dated 9 October 2024

This text was machine-translated from German.