16 05-19-icwsm-charliehebdo-v2
TRANSCRIPT
Are you Charlie or Ahmed? Cultural pluralism in Charlie Hebdo response
on Twitter
Jisun An, Haewoon Kwak, Yelena Mejova, Sonia Alonso Saenz De Oger*, and Braulio Gomez Fortes**
Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), *: Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Qatar,
**: Deusto University, Spain
ICWSM 2016
2015 Charlie Hebdo Shooting
A radical defense of freedom of speech
A defense of the
compatibility between Islam and
freedom of speech
#jesuischarlie
#jesuis charlie #jesuis
charlie#jesuisahmed
#jesuisahmed
What social factors contributes to reactions on Twitter?
Culture, religion, …
Offline context
Personal connection
What social factors affect your opinion?
Clash of Civilization
Density Theory
Interdependence Theory
Theories behind each dimension
Our goal: To understand the social factors that contribute to online individual behavior
Clash of Civilization
Density Theory
Interdependence Theory
Our goal: To understand the social factors that contribute to online individual behavior
Clash of Civilization
Density Theory
Interdependence Theory
“The fundamental source
of conflict in this new world will not be
primarily ideological or primarily economic.
…
The dominating source of
conflict will be cultural.”
by Samuel P. Huntington
Charlie Hebdo and Clash of civilization
Western Christian civilization
Islamic civilization
Charlie Hebdo and Clash of civilization
Western Christian civilization
Islamic civilization
A higher proportion of pro-Muslim tweets
(#JSA)
Charlie Hebdo and Clash of civilization
Western Christian civilization
Islamic civilization
A higher proportion of pro-free speech
tweets (#JSC)
Our goal: To understand the social factors that contribute to online individual behavior
Clash of Civilisation
Density Theory
Interdependence Theory
Density theory
“Individual behavior is density dependent and hence varies as a function of aggregate population
characteristics” by huckfeldt, 2009
For Westerners,
their behaviour or attitude towards Charlie Hebdo attack varies as a function of the % of muslim.
Possible reactions of Westerners by prominent of Muslim diasporas
Understanding and empathy
Possible reactions of Westerners by prominent of Muslim diasporas
Uand empathy
Threats and fear
Density theory
the proportion of Muslims in the population (Aggregated population characteristic)
the proportion
of pro-Muslim
tweets
(Reaction of Westerners)
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the higher the proportion of pro-Muslim tweets.
[H2a] More Muslims, More Understanding
Density theory
the proportion of Muslims in the population
the proportion
of pro-Muslim
tweets
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b] More Muslims, More Fear
Our goal: To understand the social factors that contribute to online individual behavior
Clash of Civilisation
Density Theory
Interdependence Theory
By interacting with others on a daily basis
we negotiate relationships in order
to derive some benefit, and in this process
we change ourselves.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
Interdependence theory
Density theory
Interdependence theory
Clash of civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets. [H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Density theory
Interdependence theory
Clash of civilization
[H2a] The higher population[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Christian civilisation countriestweets by users in the
Western and Islamic “civilization”
Location of a user Muslim identification
Social network
Western and Islamic “civilizations”
11M tweets with #CharlieHebdo, #JeSuisCharlie, and #JeSuisAhmed
Twitter Data
#Charlie Hebdo
#JeSuis Charlie
#JeSuis Ahmed All
Rick’s dataset 7.1M (2M)
6.5M (2M)
264K (170K)
11M (3M)
Remove users having less than 2 tweets or more than 148 tweets
8.8M (1.4M)
Locating users: Geotagged + Yahoo! PlaceMaker
4M (642K)
39 countries of interests
1.37M (290K)
1.62M (309K)
42K (26K)
3M (464K)
Social network932M tweets, 23M mentioned user
276M links (0.6% are reciprocal)
3M (464K)
IdentificationMuslim
ccc
VS
Muslim Non-Muslim
Identification
“94% of Arabs are Muslims” by CIA, The World Factbook 2010
MuslimArabic
*Exceptions: Iran and Turkey
Arabic Identification
By Language: Any user who
tweets in Arabic has a name in Arabic set their language on Twitter as Arabic
By Arabic names in English: We build a dictionary of 4,401 Arabic names in English using baby name lexicons.
majority voting with
CLD2, langid.py, and LangDetect
Arabic Identification
Out of 464K users, 5.3% of users (23,924) are “Arab”.
We focus on “Western” users
Density theory
Interdependence theory
Clash of civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets. [H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Density theory
Interdependence theory
Clash of civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets. [H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Percentage of tweets mentioning each hashtags
The relative proportion of #JSC to #JSA is strikingly different in two groups
For Arab, 1 #JSA tweet / 10 #JSC tweet For Non-Arab, 1 #JSA tweet / 43 #JSC tweet
Percentage of tweets mentioning each hashtags
The relative proportion of #JSC to #JSA is strikingly different in two groups
For Arab, 1 #JSA tweet / 10 #JSC tweet For Non-Arab, 1 #JSA tweet / 43 #JSC tweet
Support for H
1?
Density theory
Interdependence theory
Clash of civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets. [H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Weak support
Density theory
Interdependence theory
Clash of civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets. [H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Weak support
The proportion of Muslims in the population vs. the proportion of pro-Islam tweets
#JSA tweets #JSC + #JSA tweets
*we exclude Turkey and Iran
r=0.745 r=0.845 r=0.675
Westerners who live in Middle Eastern countries tend to tweet more with #JSA than those who live
in the West
*we exclude Turkey and Iran
r=0.745 r=0.845 r=0.675
Westerners in the Middle East tend to tweet more with #JSA than those who live in the West
Non-Arab users
r=0.845
r=0.745 r=0.845 r=0.675
Arab in the West tend to tweet more with #JSC than those who live in the Middle East
Arab users
*we exclude Turkey and Iran
r=0.675
Our data shows …
r=0.845
Westerners in Middle-‐east
Westerners in West
If only clash of civilisation mattered,
then the group should look like this,
Pseudo Graph
Density theory
Interdependence theory
Clash of civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets. [H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Mixed
Support
Density theory
Interdependence theory
Clash of civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets. [H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Mixed
Support
A Westerner
ccc
ccc
ccc
ccc
ccc
ccc
Arab mention
Arab mention
Non-Arab
Non-ArabNon-Arab
Non-Arab
Non-Arab
Non-Arab
A Westerner
Mean percentage of JSA tweets for four user groups in conditions with and without Arab mentions.
How does Arab mention affect #JSA tweeting behavior?
Mean percentage of JSA tweets for four user groups in conditions with and without Arab mentions.
The personal mentions in users’ interactions do affect
1.263.03
5.37
9.86
2.83
15.76
Pearson and Spearman correlations of % of JSA tweets to % of Arab mentions in the mention
network by different user groups.
More Arab mentions, more #JSA tweets
Density theory
Interdependence theory
Clash of civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets. [H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Mixed
Support
Support
Density theory
Interdependence theory
Clash of civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets. [H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are likely to tweet similar content to that of their neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Mixed
Support
Support
Takeaway
Clash of civilization has a mixed result, needs to be rejected or at least qualified, in favor of social context theories.
Social context is important in examining online behavior.
Both offline social context and personal mentions in users’ interactions do affect the likelihood of expressing an opinion favorable to #JeSuisAhmed.
“Offline” distinction is a stronger predictor of online behavior.
QCRI Georgetown University, Qatar
Deusto University, Spain
@JisunAn, @haewoon, @yelenamejova Sonia Alonso Saenz De Oger Braulio Gomez Fortes
Are you Charlie or Ahmed? Cultural pluralism in Charlie Hebdo response
on Twitter