Woodger, David; Thompson, Naomi; Law, Natalie and Freund-Williams, Leo. 2025. Youth, Race and Social Media - Project Report. Project Report. Goldsmiths, University of London, London. [Report]

Text Final Race & Social media report 2025.pdf - Published Version Download (590kB)

Abstract or Description

This report outlines the findings from the Youth, Race and Social Media project, funded by Meta. The purpose of the research was to explore young black and racially minoritised (BRM) people’s experiences of racial content on social media. The research focused on young people aged 16-24 and living in the UK. The project involved a survey to gather quantitative data with over 800 BRM young people as well as qualitative focus groups and interviews with over 100 young people across the UK.

There is a dearth of UK-specific research on race and social media, highlighting the need for this study and its contribution to understanding young BRM experiences in particular. International research highlights the trauma of repeated exposure to racial violence online and the impact of this on mental health (Tynes et al. 2019), the use of social media for activism (Ince et al. 2017), and that graphic video content in particular has become a voyeuristic spectacle rather than a prompt to action (Mowatt 2018). Heard-Garris et al. (2021) argue online activism can provide an important coping mechanism for adolescents exposed to racism – but that this activism can lead to either massive exposure to vicarious racist content or direct targeting and harassment. Miller et al. (2021) highlight that social media is a site of both oppression and expression, demonstrating complexities in how issues of race and racism emerge online.

Almost all young people we surveyed had encountered abusive or violent racial content and more than half encountered it regularly. This included videos and images of violence, racism towards others and racism targeted at them directly. Young people in focus groups and interviews said any attempt to engage with racist content led to substantial further abuse as well as a proliferation of such content appearing on their feeds, due to how the algorithms work. Most young people said they rarely created their own content relating to race and were disengaging from it where they encountered it because of the overwhelm and other negative consequences. Young people were largely dissatisfied with responses where they had reported racist content to social media platforms, police and other authority figures.

Some young people said that what they see on social media has helped them to understand the extent and nature of racism. The most positive way in which young people did engage with race on social media was with others who are also from racially minoritised backgrounds where they developed friendships and solidarity. Young people’s experiences of racism on social media impacted their wider lives in various ways. Around three fifths of young people said their encounters with racial content on social media make them feel unsafe in their wider lives. Further, over half said these online experiences negatively impact their relationships with authority and over two fifths said it harms their mental health. Overall, young BRM people experience social media as a place where racism thrives unchecked and even well-intentioned sharing of racial content often contributes to harmful and traumatising effects.

Item Type:	Report (Project Report)
Related URLs:	https://www.gold.ac.uk/news/2025/bsa/
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Social, Therapeutic & Community Engagement (STaCS) Social, Therapeutic & Community Engagement (STaCS) > Centre for Community Engagement Research
Date:	24 April 2025
Item ID:	38765
Date Deposited:	06 May 2025 08:19
Last Modified:	06 May 2025 08:19
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/38765

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