Social Processes in the Intensification of Online Hate: The Effects of Verbal Replies to Anti-Muslim and Anti-Jewish Posts Following 7 October 2023

Online hate messaging targeting Muslims and Jews increased dramatically following Hamas’s attack on Israelis on 7 October 2023 and Israel’s military response in Gaza. This study examined anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate posts on X.com and the verbal replies, Likes, and reposts they acquired over the following month. It tests a theory explaining the propagation of hate messages in social media based on the social approval posters garner from other users. The analysis involved replies to 6388 anti-Muslim or anti-Jewish hate posts in terms of their semantic convergence or divergence with the content of original posts. No differences between patterns of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim discourse arose. Convergent replies to one’s hate posts led individuals to post more hatefully in their next post, and more quickly. Likes also accelerated hate posting, while reposts decelerated them. Divergent replies led to less hateful and slower subsequent hate postings. Conclusions address implications for the social approval theory of online hate, and the relative influence of verbal replies due to their costliness.