Press: Alexandra Pavliuc’s article in The Conversation ‘Kamala Harris abuse campaign shows how trolls evade social media moderation’

As Vice President Kamala Harris settles into her first full week in the White House, thousands are heading online to celebrate her ground-breaking achievement. Unfortunately, thousands more are flooding social media with sexualised, transphobic, and racist posts which continue to highlight the particular abuse faced by female politicians online.

Alexa and her colleagues studied this abuse in the weeks leading up to the 2020 US presidential election, revealing how trolls and abusers commonly use coded language and dog whistles to evade the moderation efforts of social media companies. This evolution of online hate speech undermines the “automated moderation” tools that platforms are currently using to tackle hate speech.

Read the full article here