The State of Evidence in Digital Hate Research: An Umbrella Review

Digital hate poses a threat to citizens, communities, and societies. Despite numerous studies and reviews on the concept of digital hate, we lack a systematic view of the entire body of scholarship. The aim of this umbrella review is therefore to evaluate the scope, definitions, main findings, and identified gaps of digital hate research. An umbrella review allows one to examine, compare, and evaluate the state of the research across all available reviews in order to point to larger, overarching patterns, shortcomings, and contradictions. We analyzed N = 206 narrative, systematic, and meta-analytical reviews. Findings suggest a lack of conceptual clarity, a need to study platform and age differences as well as a need to study digital hate across actors. Also, the analyzed reviews consistently call for experimental, longitudinal, and non-Western, cross-country research. We call for a coordinated cross-disciplinary effort to restructure and harmonize digital hate research.