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FOR RELEASE AUGUST 15, 2016 BY Monica Anderson and Paul Hitlin FOR MEDIA OR OTHER INQUIRIES : Monica Anderson , Research A ssociate Paul Hitlin , Senior Researcher Dana Page , Senior Communications Manager 202.419.4372 www.pewresearch.org RECOMMENDED CITATION: Pew Research Center, August 2016 , “Social Media Conversations About Race” Available at: tktk http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/08/15/social -media -conversations -about -race/ NUMBERS, FACTS AND TRENDS SHAPING THE WORLD 1 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It does not take policy positions. The Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, content analys is and other data -driven social science research. It studies U.S. politics and policy; journalism and media; internet, science and technology; religion and public life; Hispanic trends; global attitudes and trends; and U.S. social and demographic trends. A ll of the center’s reports are available at www.pewresearch.org . Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. © Pew Research Center 2016 2 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org 9 6 24 34 29 44 41 48 27 14 16 5 All social media users Whites Blacks Most Some Only a few None Social Media Conversation s A bout Race Americans are increasingly turning to social media for news and political information and to encourage others to get involved with a cause or movement. Social media also can serve as an important venue where groups with common interests come together to share ideas and informatio n. And a t time s, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites can help users bring greater attention to issues through their collective voice . In recent years , these platforms have provided new arenas for national conversation s about race and racial in equality. Some researchers and activists credit social media – in particular, Black Twitter – with propelling racially focused issues to greater national attention . In fact, two of the most used hashtags around social causes in Twitter history focus on race and criminal justice: #Ferguson and #BlackLivesMatter . In addition to so cial and political issues, social media also serve as place s where conversations about race intersect with a number of issues, including pop culture, sports and everyday personal experiences. A new Pew Research Center survey finds significant differences in the way black and white adults use social media to share and interact with race -related content. 1 And a Pew Research Center analysis of tweets reveals that key news events – from Baltimore , to Charleston, South Carolina, to Dallas – often serve as a cat alyst for social media conversations about race . Black social media users (68%) are roughly twice as likely as whites (35%) to say that at least some of the posts they see on social networking sites are about race or race relations. When it comes to 1 Analysis of Hispanic social media users can be found in Chapter 1 . There were not enough Asian respondents in the sample to be broken out in a separate analysis. Two -thirds of black social media users say that most or some of the posts they see on social media are about race % of social media users who say that ___ of the posts they see on social networking sites are about race or race relations Note: Whites and blacks include only non -Hispanics. All social media users include adult social media users of all races “Don’t know/Refused” responses are not shown. Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Feb. 2V JMay 8, 2016. Q13aK “Social Media Conversations About Race ” PEW RESEARCH CENTER 3 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org their own posting s, a similar racial gap exists. Am ong black social media users, 28 % say most o r some of what they post is about race or race relations; 8% of whites say the same. On the other hand, roughly two -thirds (67%) of whites who use social media say th at none of things they post or share pertain to race. In addition to the survey data, Pew Research Center conducted three content analysis case studies using publically available tweets. The first analysis found that over a 15 -mont h period (from Jan. 1, 2015 , through March 31, 2016) there were about 995 million tweets about race – or, on average, 2.1 million tweets per day on the subject. By contrast, about 500 million tweets in total were posted on Twitter each day in 2015 , meaning that tweets mentioning race made up about 0.04% of all tweets posted. Of the tweets about race, a ma jority (60% ) were directly related to news event s, like the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolin a, or the Grammy performance of rapper Kendrick Lamar. 2 The second case study focuses on the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter – which predated the Black Lives Matter organization . The hashtag has been used approximately 12 million times from July 12, 2013 , through March 31, 2016 , and during this period , it was used more often in support of the movement than in opposition to it. Roughly 40% of the times #BlackLivesMatter was used, it was to display solidarity with the social movement, compared with 11% of the time when it was used to criticize the same movement. 3 2 A tweet wa s considered to be “about race” if it included an explicit reference to blacks, whites or the concept of race in general. Thi s analysis includes only tweets in the English language and from public accounts. It is not possible to determine whether the accou nts are used by Americans or others. See the methodology for a detailed explanation of how the analysis was conducted. 3 The analysis of Twitter data a bout #BlackLivesMatter only includes tweets containing the exact terms of either “#BlackLivesMatter” or “BlackLivesMatter” and does not include tweets that used an abbreviation or other variation. The data about #AllLivesMatter o nly includes tweets contain ing the exact terms “#AllLivesMatter” or “AllLivesMatter,” and the data for #BlueLivesMatter only includes tweets containing the exact terms “#BlueLivesMatter” or “BlueLivesMatter.” For more information on the emergence and distinction of the #BlackLivesMa tter Six -in -ten race -related tweets were tied to current events % of race -related Twitter posts: Jan . 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016 Related to current events 60 % 2016 campaign 10 Police or judicial system 7 Celebrities or entertainment 7 Other current events 35 Not related to current events 40 % About discrimination, but not tied to specific events 22 Related to race, but not explicitly about racial discrimination 18 Note: Data were collected using Crimson Hexagon’s machine learning algorithm and include all publically available tweets that mention race from Jan. 1, 201R I to March 31, 2016. Numbers may not add up due to roundingK Source: Pew Research Center analysis using Crimson Hexagon. “Social Media Conversations About Race” PEW RESEARCH CENTER 4 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org The third case study examines the Twitter conversation f ollowing the deaths of two black men at the hands of police and the shootings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This time period – July 5 -17 , 2016 – had the hashtags of #BlackLivesMatter, #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter used more often than any other time since the hashtags began appearing on Twitter in July 2013 . And almost overnight, the tone of the online conversation around #BlackLivesMatter shifted following the attacks on law enforcement. There was a dramatic rise in the share of tweets criticizi ng the Black Lives Matter movement using that hashtag in our July analysis and a drop in the share of tweets that supported the movement . The rise in critical tweets was especially notable after the killing of police officers in Dallas. The analysis of public tweets , which was conducted using computer coding software from Crimson Hexagon , also found that the volume of race -related tweets tended to peak in the immediate aftermath of high -profile events and re flected more of a synthesis of ideas and reactions than an account of the details of those events .4 The survey findings are based on a national survey of the general public conducted by landline and cellular telephone from Feb. 29 -May 8, 2016 , among 3,769 U.S. adults. In this survey, 64% of all adults reported they are social media users. 5 That figure includes 62% of white adults who are social media users; 63% of blacks who are social media users; and 63% of Hispanics who are social media users. This repo rt focuses on the subpopulations of each racial and ethnic group who are social media users, rather than the entire adult segment of each cohort. hashtag and the Black Lives Matter organization, read The Center for Media and Social Impact ’s 2015 report “ Beyond the Hashtags: #Ferguson, #Black lives matter , and the online struggle for offline justice .” 4 For a detailed explainer on how Pew Research Center uses Crimson Hexagon software to analyze tweets , read “ Methodology: How Crimson Hexagon Works .” 5 Social media users were determined by those who answered “yes” to the question, “Do you ever use a social networking site lik e Facebook or Twitter?” 5 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org 9 6 24 14 34 29 44 40 41 48 27 31 14 16 5 13 All social media users Whites Blacks Hispanics Most Some Only a few None 1 . Blacks more likely than whites to see -- and post – race - related content on social media Social networkin g sites are often used to discuss social and cultural issues, and a substantial majority of social media users – white, black and Hispanic – report they encounter content on these platforms about race or race relations . But the amount of race -related conte nt users report see ing on social media varies considerably across racial and ethnic groups, with blacks being especially like ly to see content that pertains to race on these platforms. In general, Americans are much more likely to see posts related to race or race relations than they are to personally post or share race -related content. Even so, roughly four -in-ten social media users indicate that at least a few of the posts they share are related to racial issues. And just as black social media users are more likely than whites to come across posts about race on social media, they are also more likely to personally share or post race -related content. One -in-four black social media users say most of the content they see on social networking sites is about race or race relations Fully 68% of bla ck social media users say that at least some the posts they see on social networking sites are about race or race relations, including 24% who say this describes most of the content they see on social media. Whites are significantly less likely to encounter race -related content on social networking site s. Among whites who use s ocial media, roughly a third say most (6%) or some (29%) of the content they see on social me dia is about race or relations . An additional 48 % say only a few of the posts they see are about race or race relations , and 16% say none of what they see relates to these topics. Black social media users are much more likely than whites to see posts about race % of social media users who say that ___ of the posts they see on social networking sites are about race or race relations Note: Whites and blacks include only non -Hispanics. All social media users include adult social media users of all races. “Don’t know/Refused” responses not shown. Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Feb. 29 -May 8, 2016. Q13a. “Social Media Conversations About Race ” PEW RESEARCH CENTER 6 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org 2 1 8 4 11 7 19 16 26 24 30 30 60 67 42 49 All social media users Whites Blacks Hispanics Most Some Only a few None Hispanics fall between these two groups: 54% say that at least some of the posts they see are about race or race relations, while 44% report seeing only a few or no posts on the topic. Posting and sharing things abou t race on social networking sites is much more common among black users Overall, four -in-ten social media users indicate that at least a few of the posts they personally shar e on social media are about race or race relations. A relative ly small share of social media users, however, say that most (2%) or some (11%) of the things they post are race - related . In deed , a majority of social media users – 60% – report that none of their social media postings pertain to race. But black s ocial media users are more likely than whites or Hispanics to use social media to discuss race. Some 28% of black social media users say at least some of the things they share or post on social networking sites are about race or race relations, including 8 % who say this applies to most of their posts. 6 Among Hispanic social media users, one -in-five say most or some of their social media posts are about race or race relations. In contrast , only 8% of white social media users say that at least some of things they share or post are about race or relations. In fact, a majority of white users (67%) say they never post or share things about race, while an additional 24% say race is the focus of only a few of their own posts . It is worth noting that significant shares of black and Hispanic social media users also report that many of their own posts do not pertain to race: 42% of black social media users and 49% of Hispanic social media users say that none of what they share or post on social networkin g sites is about race or race relations. 6 Other Pew Research Center survey data suggest that black social media users a re mor e likely to use social media to express support or solidarity with a cause or movement. See Pew Research Center’s 2016 blog post “ Changing a social media profile picture is one way to express support or solidarity .” Roughly three -in -ten black social media users say most or some of what they post pertains to race % of social media users who say that ___ of the things they post or share on social networking sites are about race or race relations Note: Whites and blacks include only non -Hispanics. All social media users include adult social media users of all races . “Don’t know/Refused” responses not shown. Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Feb. 2V JMay 8, 2016. Q13bK “Social Media Conversations About Race ” PEW RESEARCH CENTER 7 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org 41 11 23 3 72 30 55 20 Whites Blacks Most/some posts they see on social media are about race or race relations Most/some things they share on social media are about race or race relations Most/some posts they see on social media are about race or race relations Most/some things they share on social media are about race or race relations Social media users who regularly have conversations about race tend to see and share more race -related content on social networking sites People can have c onversations about race - relations both online and offline , and social media users who discuss race relations or racial inequality more frequently overall are also more likely to see and share posts about race on social media. But regardless of how much or how little they talk about race in their everyday lives, r ace - related content remains a more common component of the social media experience for black rather than white users . For example, 7 2% of black social media users who say they often or sometimes have conversations about race relations or racial inequality report that most or some of the posts they see on social networking sites are about race, 41% of white s ocial media users who freque ntly talk about race say the same. 7 And even among black social media users who say they rarely or never discuss race relations or racial inequality , a majority (55%) state that most or some of the posts they see on social media pertain to race or race rel ation s. T hat share drops to 23% for their white counterparts. These racial gaps also exist for how much users themselves post about racial issues. Some 11% of white users who have regular conversations about racial inequality or race relations also report that most or some of their social media posts are about race; for black users that share is higher, at 30%. And while 20% of b lacks social media 7 This analysis of social media users combines two questions fro m the overall survey in order to analyze blacks and whites separately, “Do yo u talk about race relations often, sometimes, rarely or never? ” and “Do you talk about racial inequality often, sometimes, rarely or never ?” Black social media users – regardless of how often they talk about race in their everyday lives – are more likely to see and share race -related content Among social media users … Note: Whites and bl ack social media users include only non - Hispanics. “Don’t know/Refused” responses not shown. Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Feb. 2V JMay 8, 2016. “Social Media Conversations About Race ” PEW RESEARCH CENTER % of blacks saying … …w ho say they often/sometimes have conversations about race relations/racial inequality …w ho say they rarely/never have conversations about race relations/racial inequality 8 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org users who report rarely or never discussing race relations say that at least some of things they post or share on social media are about race or race relations, few white users – 3% – who discuss race infrequently say the same. 9 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org 2. Twitter conversation s about race In addition to surveying Americans about their experiences with and exposure to race -related content on social media, Pew Research Center conducted a content analysis to examine how race is discussed on Twitter. The Center used the social analytics tool cr eated by Crimson Hexagon to analyze the textual content from all publicly available posts on Twitter . The first case study focused on the timeframe of Jan. 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016. (For an in -depth explanat ion of how C rimson Hexagon ’s tool works, see the methodology . This analysis determined that during those 15 months, there were a total of about 995 million tweets about race posted on Twitter. (A tweet was considered to be “about race” if it included an explicit reference to blacks, whites or the concept of race in general). That works out to an average of 66 million tweets per month and 2.1 million tweets per day. Indeed, no single day over that time had fewer than 1.5 million tweets mentioning racial issues. Active discussion of race on Twitter tends to follow larg e news events – often occurring the day after, as people reflect and respond to the issue The analysis found that m ost of the largest race -focused conversations on Twitter during this period came the day following a major event – after people had time to p rocess the event and formulate their reactions. Many of these moments involved incidents in which blacks were the victims of alleged police brutality or the targets of racially -charged violence. At the same time, several of the other largest conversations involved award shows or racial controversies more broadly. Ten most active days on Twitter discussing race from Jan. 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016 # of Twitter posts mentioning race Rank Date Approximate # of tweets in millions Events 1 6/18/ 15 4.3 Day following church shooting in Charleston, S .C. 2 4/28/ 15 3.4 Unrest in Baltimore following death of Freddie Gray 3 7/22/ 15 3.3 Details are released about the death of Sandra Bland while in police custody in Texas 4 7/29/ 15 3 Protests organized by #BlackLivesMatter movement in response to death of Sandra Bland 5 7/23/ 15 3 Day after details are released about the death of Sandra Bland 6 2/16/ 16 2.9 Day following 2016 Grammy Awards and Kendrick Lamar’s provocative performance 7 11/11/ 15 2.9 Missouri University of Science and Technology student is arrested after racially charged threats were posted on social media 8 6/1 9/1 5 2.9 Two days following church shooting in Charleston 9 2/29/ 16 2.9 Day following 2016 Oscars amid controversy over the lack of minority nominees 10 6/29/ 15 2.9 Day following BET Awards Note: Data were collected using Crimson Hexagon’s machine learning algorithm and include all publically available tweets that mention race from Jan. 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016. Source: Pew Research Center analysis using Crimson Hexagon. “Social Media Conversations About Race” PEW RESEARCH CENTER 10 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org In this context, Twitter was more likely to be used as a place to respond to events and synthesize ideas than as a platform to report details of incidents as they occurred. For example, during the 15 months studied, the day with the most race -related conversation was June 18, 2015, one day after the mass shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina. On that day, there were approximately 4.3 million tweets posted about race , more than double the 2.1 million tweets the previous day when the shooting occurred. Several of the other highpoints follo wed a similar patte rn. The sixth -largest day was Feb. 16, 2016 , one day after the 2016 Grammy Awards which featured a provocative performance by rapper Kendrick Lamar. T he ninth largest was Feb. 29, 2016, one day after the 2016 Oscars , which took place amid the #Osca rSoWhite backlash. Majority of race -related posts on Twitter were tied to current events The nearly one billion race -related posts on Twitter during this time period touched on a wide - ranging set of subjects, including social activism, pop culture and pers onal experiences. However, the majority of the racial conversation (60% of the tweets in total) was directly related to news and current events. 11 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org 12 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org Several major storylines received particular attention. Some 10% of all tweets dealing with race – an average of more than 6.6 million tweets each month – mentioned the 2016 presidential campaign. Republican candidate Donald Trump was the subject of many of these: For example, on March 12, 2016, about 1,800 different accounts retweeted a video originally p osted by 41 Action News of protesters interrupting a Kansas City rally and accusing Trump of being a “racist.” Issues related to the police or judicial system made up an additional 7% of the conversation surrounding race.

These tweets covered topics such as the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Discussions of race in the context of pop culture events accounted for 7% of the overall Twitter conversation around race. Some 35% of race -related posts on Twitter per tained to other events such as the video of University of Oklahoma fraternity members chanting racial slurs and the controversy surrounding NAA CP-branch president Rachel Dolezal who was accused of lying about her race. Another portion of tweets about race were focused on broad themes or individual experiences The remaining 40% of the racially focused conversation on Twitter was not tied to specific current events, but rather to other subjects such as wider political themes or personal circumstances. Just over half of these tweets (representing 22% of all race -related posts) pertained to broad issues around discrimination, sometimes in a historical context. For example, on July 7, 2015, Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis posted a message alongside a mugshot of himself from 1961. His post was retweeted more than 25,000 times. Six -in -ten race -related tweets were tied to current events % of race -related Twitter posts: Jan . 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016 Related to current events 60 % 2016 campaign 10 Police or judicial system 7 Celebrities or entertainment 7 Other current events 35 Not related to current events 40 % About discrimination, but not tied to specific events 22 Related to race, but not explicitly about racial discrimination 18 Note: Data were collected using Crimson Hexagon’s machine learning algorithm and include all pu blically available tweets that mention race from Jan. 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016. Numbers may not add up due to rounding. Source: Pew Research Center analysis using Crimson Hexagon. “Social Media Conversations about Race” PEW RESEARCH CENTER 13 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org @repjohnlewis: 54 yrs ago today I was released from Parchman after being arrested in Jackson for using ‘white’ restroom #goodtrouble A slightly smaller number (representing 18% of race -related posts) dealt with race in a general sense without mentioning discrimination or a specific news event. In one example, more than 26,000 accounts retweeted a January 2015 drawing by @branfire . The drawing was of the Disney character El sa from the movie Frozen who was depicted with dark skin and followed by the caption “RT to make a racist mad.” 14 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org 3. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter emerges: S ocial activism on Twitter In recent years, social media have become a common way for political groups and social movements to organize. On Twitter’s 10 -year anniversary, the site published a list of the most used hashtags related to social causes. Two of the top three were directly related to issues of race.

According to Twitter, #Ferguson was the most used s ocial -issue hashtag in the 10 -year history of the platform , while #BlackLivesMatter was third. 15 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org 16 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org Along with examining tweets that mentioned race in a general sense, the Center’s analysis looked at all tweets that included the #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter hashtags from July 12, 2013, to March 31, 2016. These tweets (13.3 million in total) were then analyzed using Crimson Hexagon’s algorithmic tool to determine their subje ct matter and tone. (A previous Pew Research Center study surveyed Americans on their awareness of and attitudes to wards issues of racial equality.) Historically, hashtags developed as an informal method of highlighting ideas in unformatted text and trying to grow conversation around a topic . In 2009, Twitter began to hyperlink and compile hashtags, making them searchable and increasing their utility as identifiers. While most hashtags are developed organically, some groups deliberately use hashtags to promote a message. In mid -2014, as the issue of use of force by police gained national attention due to several high profile cases involving black men , some activists promoted hashtags as a way to identify their messages and display solidarity. This was the case with the Black Lives Matt er movement. Organizers of Black Lives Matter made social media – and specifically the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter – a centerpiece of their strategy. As a result, the growth of the movement offline was directly linked with the online conversation. 8 An early timeline of the #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter hashtags All told, from its initial appeara nce in mid -2013 through March 2016, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter h as appeared on Twitter almost 11.8 million times. As a direct response to #BlackLivesMatte r, some on Twitter began using the hashtag #AllLivesMatter. That hashtag has been used a total of 1.5 million times, about one -eighth as often as #BlackLivesMatter. Over time, the volume of #AllLivesMatter tweets has generally moved in parallel with that o f #BlackLivesMatter. The phrase “black lives matter” was first used by a black community organizer in a Facebook post following the July 2013 acquittal of Geor ge Zimmerman in the shooting death of black 17 -year -old Trayvon Martin. 9 Despite its widespread presence today, the hashtag was slow to gain 8 See the Center for Media and Social Impact’s “ Beyond the hashtags: #Ferguson, #Blacklivesmatter, and the online struggle for offline justice ” for a review of how the activist movement utilized online media in 2014 and 2015. 9 See this March 2016 article in The New Yorker entitled “ The Matter of Black Lives ” for details about the formation o f the Black Lives Matter movement. 17 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org prominence : During the second half of 2013, it appeared on Twitter a total of just 5,106 times (or about 30 times a day) . Both the use of the hashtag and the influence of the broader Black Lives Matter movement accelerated greatly in August 2014 when Michael Brown , a black teenager, was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag appeared an average of 58,747 times per day in the roughly thre e weeks following Brown’s death. However , the use of the hashtag increased dramatically three months later when o n November 25 , the day after a Ferguson grand jury decided not to indict the officer involved in Brown’s death , the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag appeare d 172,772 times. During the subsequent three weeks, the hashtag was used 1.7 million times. Since late 2014 , #BlackLivesMatter has been a continuo us presence on Twitter, but its use has increased around some specific events. These include:  On Dec. 4, 2014, the day after a New York grand jury decided not to indict police officers in the death of Eric Garner, #BlackLivesMatter appeared 189,210 times – the most it was ever used in a single day.  The Oct . 13, 2015, presidential campaign debate in which Senator Bernie Sanders defended the Black Lives Matter movement and decried institutional racism spurred the hashtag to appear mor e than 127,000 times on Twitter the following day as many users voiced support for Sanders .  On t he one -year anniversary of Brown’s death , August 9, 2015 , the hashtag appeared 120,067 times as well as 98,518 times the following day. As for #AllLivesMatter, the hashtag appeared on Twitter a few times prior to the unrest in Ferguson in August 2014. However – as was the case with #BlackLivesMatter – it was the day after the announcement that there would be no grand jury indictments in the Michael Brown case when the hashtag began appearing regularly. On Nov . 25, 2014, #AllLivesMatter was used 14,308 times. The day in which the hashtag #AllLivesMatter appeared the most during this time period was Dec. 21, 2014, the day after two police officers were killed in New York City while i n their patrol car. That day the hashtag appeared 28,526 times. The hashtag #BlueLivesMatter, usually used to express support for police, was used 22,834 times that day. 18 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has been used frequently in support of the broader socia l movement or to flag general racial issues, occasionally as a form of criticism From its first appearance in mid -2013, Twitter users have utilized the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag for a range of purposes. Supportive or positive references to the broader move ment are among the most common. But in some cases, people included #BlackLivesMatter in tweets to criticize the movement – or simply identify the subject matter of their posts and attach them to the broader discussion occurring around racial issues. Supportive or positive references to the broader movement make up a large portion of tweets utilizing the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag Tweets using the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag that are generally supportive of the movement are much more common than those opp osing it. Over the period studied, 38% of the tweets that included #BlackLivesMatter were supportive or made positive reference to the social movement. Slightly more than half of those, representing 21% of all the tweets using the hashtag, offered broad support for racial equality and opposition to police brutality. This February 2014 post by Mag -net, a network of social organizations, is one example : @medi aaction: #blacklivesmatter is a response to the dehumanization of black people. But it's also a call to action. Others used the hashtag when describing efforts to organize protests, as in this tweet by Chicago -based activist Byron Sigcho: Tweets using the hashtag #Blac kLivesMatter suppo rted the movement by more than three -to -one margin % of Twitter posts: July 12, 2013, to March 31, 2016 Supportive or positive reference to #BlackLivesMatter movement 38 % General support 21 Specific incidents of alleged police misconduct 18 Neutral references to #BlackLivesMatter 12 % Criticism of #BlackLivesMatter movement 11 % Other 39 % General race issues, not about #BlackLivesMatter movement 15 2016 campaign 14 Miscellaneous 10 Note: Data were collected using Crimson Hexagon’s machine learning algorithm and include all tweets that included either “#BlackLivesMatter ” or “BlackLivesMatter” between July 12, 2013 , and March 31, 2016. Numbers may not add up due to rounding. N=11,781,721 relevant Twitter posts. Source: P ew Research Center analysis using Crimson Hexagon. “Social Media Conversations About Race” PEW RESEARCH CENTER 19 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org @TeamSigcho: 'Honoring the legacy of MLK by organizing' #BlackLivesMatter #MLKchi #ReclaimChicago Another 18% of tweets utilized the hashtag to connect specific incidents of alleged police misconduc t. For example, a number of Black Lives Matter supporters focused on the November 2014 death of 12 -year -old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, as in this tweet: @Progress4Ohio : Officer who killed Tamir Rice found unfit in previous police job on.msnbc.com/1BeRtxk via @msnbc #TRIBELIVE #CLEVELAND #BLACKLIVESMATTER!! Among the other incidents #BlackLivesMatter supporters focused on were the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray wh ile in police custody in Baltimore ; the March 2015 shooting death of 19 -year -old Tony Robinson at the hands of police in Madison, Wisconsin ; and the contentious arrest of University of Virginia student Martese Johnson that same month. Many tweets used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to engage with broader discussions around race Not all the uses of #BlackLivesMatter were directly tied to specific incidents. In 15% of the tweets using the hashtag, the author was making a larger point about race – without direc tly focusing on the modern -day social movement. For instance, many people offered thematic quotes: @iamkatori : A System Cannot Fail Those It Was Never Meant To Protect. #BlackLivesMatter Variations of this particular quote appeared in tweets alongside the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter more than 2,200 times. This message , which first appeared in 2013, was often attributed incorrectly to the sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois . Around one -in-ten tweets using the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag were critical of the movement As the Black Lives Matter movement grew and the use of the hashtag increased, a number of tweets began to object to the movement. Some critics felt it was valuing one race above all others, while others felt the movement was unfairly condemning all police officers based on the actions of a few. 20 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org In fact, 11% of the posts including the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag were critical of the movement and/or the actions of its supporters. Sometimes these posts utilized very strong language, as in this tweet by a retired solider: @dhiggins63: Hey #BlackLivesMatter, police saves MORE black lives everyday, than you cow ards ever will, in your pathetic lifetime! #AllLivesMatter How the #AllLivesMatter hashtag was used: a more even mix of support and criticism Unlike the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, the mentions of #AllLivesMatter from July 2013 to March 2016 were nearly ev enly split between positive and negative posts. About one -third of #AllLivesMatter tweets were supportive of the general sentiment, but few focused on a larger movement In contrast to the use of #BlackLivesMatter, posts which used #AllLivesMatter in a positive manner were less likely to connect their posts with a broader social agenda. Only 7% of the tweets using #AllLivesMatter took this position. Notably – and in contrast to the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag – #AllLivesMatter did not have a specific organization backing it or promoting its use in its early stages . More tweets, 13%, were aimed at defending th e people or organizations that were often criticized by #BlackLivesMatter – most often the police. For example, in September 2015, an account for the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick linked to a formal statement opposing violence toward police: Tweets including the hashtag #Al lLivesMatter were nearly evenly split between support and opposition % of Twitter posts: July 12, 2013, to March 31, 2016 In support of #AllLivesMatter movement 32 % General support 7 Support for police and firefighters 13 Opposition to #BlackLivesMatter movement 13 Neutral references to #AllLivesMatter 10 % Criticism of #AllLivesMatter movement 33 % Other 25 % Pro -life/anti -abortion 11 Animal rights 7 Miscellaneous 7 Note: Data were collected using Crimson Hexagon’s machine learning algorithm and include all tweets that included either “#AllLivesMatter” or “AllLivesMatter” between July 12, 2013 and March 31, 2016. Numbers may not add up due to rounding. N = 1,551,194 relevant Twitter posts. Source: Pew Research Center analysis using Crimson Hexagon . “Social Media Conversations About Race” PEW RESEARCH CENTER 21 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org @LtGovTX: #AllLivesMatter & we must end violence against our law enforcement officers Another 13% of the tweets with #AllLivesMatter focused on condemning the #BlackLivesMatter movement. One -third of tweets with #AllLivesMatter were critical of its meaning A backlash against #AllL ivesMatter developed that was just as large as the hashtag itself. In fact, 33% of the tweets that contained the hashtag were criticizing the premise of #AllLivesMatter – almost the same amount (32%) that used #AllLivesMatter in a positive light. To critic s, #AllLivesMatter was a minimization of the concerns of minorities, especially in regards to issues of police brutality and discrimination. Syndicated columnist Arthur Chu illust rated this view on November 27, 2014: @arthur_affect: Do people who change #BlackLivesMatter to #AllLivesMatter run thru a cancer fundraiser going ‘THERE ARE OTHER DISEASES TOO.’ Chu’s message was retweeted more than 11,000 times. #AllLivesMatter gets use d by other movements While the vast majority of the use of #AllLivesMatter was in reference to conversations on race, several other movements used the hashtag in different contexts. About one -in-ten (11%) tweets with #AllLivesMatter were used by someone o pposing abortion. Many of those were connected with the 2015 controversy involving videos that purported to show wrongdoing committed by the health services organization Planned Parenthood. In January 2016, one user tweeted : @Metz_Byron: Americans Need To Stand United For Life. #WeThePeople Must #DefundPP TODAY. #PrayToEndAbortion #AllLivesMatter #RedNationRising #RenewUS Another 7% of tweets were used to promote animal rights, someti mes in support of vegetarianism. Musician Kristin Star expressed this sentiment in November 2014 : 22 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org @Kristin_Star: Save Lives...Live Compassionately...Be Vegan!!! #EveryoneCounts #AllLivesMatter #HelpChangetheWorld #Life #Love #Peace #Vegan #LivePeace 23 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org 4. Major recent events bring #BlackLives Matter back to the forefront as the tone shifts overnight The weeks (July 5 -17, 2016) following the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police officers represent a highly active period regarding the discussion of the Black Lives Matter movement , as well as the use of #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter on Twitter. Du ring this period, major events caused a dramatic shift in the tone of conversation surrounding #BlackLivesMatter. There was a notable rise in the share of tweets criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement using that hashtag and a drop in the share of twee ts that expressed support. 24 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org Both of the shooting incidents were recorded and subse quently posted on social media. In the days following, there were two major attacks on law enforcement. O n July 7 , a gunman killed five and injured nine police officers in Dallas . Nine days later, another shooter attacked law enforcement in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, killing three officers and wounding three others. During this period, the use of these hashtags reached record height s. On July 8, the da y following the Dallas attack, #BlackLivesMatter appeared on Twitter more than 1.1 million times . That was almost six times as often as the previous most -active day – Dec . 4, 2014 – when the hashtag appeared almost 189,210 times. In tot al, #BlackLivesMatter appeared nearly 5 million times during this time period , an average of more than 380,000 times a day following the death of Alton Sterling in Louisiana . On July 8 , the hashtag #AllLivesMatter appeared almost 190,000 times, also more than six times as often a s the p revious most -active day – Dec. 21, 2014 – when it appeared about 28,500 times. During this 13 -day period, it appeared more than 630 ,000 times. The hashtag #BlueLivesMatter, which was generally used as an expression of suppor t for police , appeared more than 415, 000 times during those 13 days. On July 8 alone, the hashtag was used almost 140,000 times. The previous highest count was 23, 207 times on Sept. 9, 2015 . #BlackLivesMatter finds opposition on Twitter While 41% of tweets using #BlackLi vesMatter during this nearly two -week stretch supported the movement, a larger portion of the tweets using the hashtag opposed the movement than in the previous time period studied (33% compared to 11% in the earlier period) . And this opposition increased dramatically after the attacks on police officers . Those supporting #BlackLivesMatter generally focused on the deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana , and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. For example , writer Ana Marie Cox tweeted a picture of a woman holding a sign that read: @anamariecox: #PhilandoCastile fed my sons lunch. Cops fed him four bullets. #Blacklivesmatter 25 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org 87 28 2 33 11 39 July 5-7 July 8-17 Oppose Neutral Support In fact, from July 5 to July 7, fully 87% of the uses of #BlackLivesMatter on Twitter were favorable , compared to 11% that were negative . However, following the attack on police officers in Dallas that began late on July 7, the tenor of the online conversation changed dramatic ally. From July 8 to July 17, 39 % of tweets using #BlackLivesMatter were opposed to the movement, compared to 28% that were in support and 33 % that were neutral. On July 17, the da y the attack on po lice occurred in Baton Rouge , Louisiana , two -thirds of the tweets opposed #BlackLivesMatter (67%) compared to 26 % that were positive and 6% that were neutral. W riter Clay Travis criticized the #BlackLivesMatter movement for not giving the police respect : @ClayTravis: The police aren't perfect, but they save tens of thousands of black lives e very year. No one believes #blacklivesmatter more than them. Many of the opponents blamed the #BlackLivesMatter movement for the attacks on police. In fact, nearly half of the tweet s in opposition (15% of all tweets using the hashtag) during this period directly connected #BlackLivesMatter to violence. Many referred to #BlackLivesMatter as a terrorist organization. For example, one account with the name “ Democrats for Trump ” tweeted : @YoungDems4Trump: #BlackLivesMatter just killed two more cops in Baton Rough . . . rt if you think #BLM is a terrorist group. This needs to end. Tone of T witter around #BlackLivesMatter shifts after Dallas shooting % of Twitter posts: July 5, 2016, to July 17, 2016 Note: Data were collected using Crimson Hexagon’s machine learning algorithm and all tweets that included “#BlackLivesMatter” or “BlackLivesMatter” from July 5, 2016 , to July 17 , 2016. Source: Pew Research Center analysis using Crimson Hexagon. “Social M edia Conversations About Race” PEW RESEARCH CENTER 26 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org As was true with the earlier period studied, #AllLi vesMatter was mostly used as a reac tion to the use of #BlackLivesMatter. Unlike the other times, however, there was a greater show of support in the use of #AllLivesMatter tha n opposition. From July 5 -17, 54 % of the times #AllLivesMatter was used it was in suppor t of the con cept, compared to 38 % that opposed it and 8% that were neutral . Similarly , the hashtag #BlueLivesMatter was used to show support for police and oftentimes to show opposition to #BlackLivesMatter supporters. Unlike #AllLivesMatter, many fewer people criticized the use of the hashtag #BlueLivesMatter. In total, 72% of the times #BlueLivesMatter was used it was in support of the concept, compared to 13% opposed and 15% neutral. One frequent theme for #BlueLivesMatter supporters was criticism of Preside nt Obama for not doing enough to show support for police, and in some cases even blaming him for the attacks on law enforcement. In all, 13% of the tweets that included the hashtag featured an anti -Obama sentiment – about one -fifth of all the tweets that s upported #BlueLivesMatter. Dan Bongino, a congressional candidate in Florida, demonstrated this view when he wrote : @dbongino: You're either with the cops or you're with Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton. Sadly, it's that simple. #BlueLivesMatter Post -Dallas shooting of police officers, majority of #BlueLivesMatter tweets show support % of Twitter posts: July 5, 2016, to July 17, 2016 #AllLivesMatter #BlueLivesMatter Support 54 72 Neutral 8 15 Oppose 38 13 Note: Data were collected using Crimson Hexagon’s machine learning algorithm and all tweets that included “#BlackLivesMatter,” “BlackLivesMatter,” “#AllLivesMatter,” “AllLivesMatter,” “#BlueLivesMatter” or “BlueLivesMatter” from July 5, 2016 , to July 17, 2016. Source: Pew Research Center analysis using Crimson Hexagon . “Social Media Conversations About Race” PEW RESEARCH CENTER 27 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org Acknowledgments This report is a collaborative effort based on the input and analysis of the following individuals. Find related reports online at http://www.pewresearch.org/topics/social -media/ and http://www.pewresearch.org/topics/race -and -ethnicity/ . Primary researchers Monica Anderson , Research Associate Paul Hitlin , Senior Researcher Research team Kim Parker , Director , Social Trends Research Aaron Smith , Associate Director, Research Lee Rainie , Director, Internet, Science, and Technology Research Juliana Menasce Horowitz , Associate Director, Research Eileen Patten , Research Analyst Michael Dimock , President Andrew Perrin , Research Assistant Editorial and graphic design Michael Keegan , Information Graphics Designer Communications and web publishing Shannon Greenwood , Associate Digital Producer Dana Page , Senior Communications Manager Molly Rohal, Communications Manager 28 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org Methodology The survey date used in this report is based on telephone interviews conducted Feb. 29 to May 8, 2016, among a national sample of 3,769 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (977 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 2,792 were interviewed on a cellphone, including 1,676 who had no landline telephone). The survey was conducted by interviewers at Princeton Data Source under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRA I). Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. For detailed information about our survey methodology, see http://www.pewresearch.org/methodology/u -s-survey -research/ Four s eparate samples were used for data collection to obtain a representative sample that included an oversample of black and Hispanic respondents. The first sample was a disproportionately stratified random -digit -dial (RDD) landline sample drawn using standard list - assisted methods. A total of 822 interviews were completed using this RDD landline sample. The second sample was a disproportionally stratified RDD cell sample to oversample blacks and Hispanics. A total of 2,440 interviews were completed using this RDD cell sample. Respondents in the landline sample were selected by randomly asking for the youngest adult male or female who is now at home. Interviews in the cell sample were conducted with the person who answered the phone, if that person was an adult 18 years of age or older. The landline and cell callback samples were drawn from recent Pew Research Center surveys conducted by PSRAI and included people who identified themselves as black at the time of the initial interview. All surveys used to produce the callback samples employed RDD sampling methodologies. The weighting was accomplished in multiple stages to account for the disproportionately stratified samples, the overlapping landline and cell sample frames and household composition, the oversamplin g of blacks through callback interviews and differential non -response associated with sample demographics. The first stage of weighting corrected for different probabilities of selection associated with the number of adults in each household and each respo ndent’s telephone usage patterns. 10 This weighting also adjusts for the overlapping landline and cell sample frames and the relative sizes of each frame and each sample. Since we employed a disproportionately stratified sample design, the 10 I.e., whether respondents have only a landline telephone, only a cellphone or both kinds of telephone. 29 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org first -stage weight was computed separately for each stratum in each sample frame. The callback sample segments were assigned a first -stage weight equal to their first -stage weight from their original interview. After the first -stage weighting an adjustment was made to accou nt for the callback oversamples, landline s and cell phones , of blacks. The next step in weighting was demographic raking. The data was first divided into three groups – black, Hispanic and white/other. Each group was raked separately to population paramete rs for sex by age, sex by education, age by education and census region. The white/other group was also raked on a two -category race variable – white vs. not white. The Hispanic group was also raked on nativity – U.S. born vs. foreign born. The combined da taset was raked to parameters for race/ethnicity, population density and household telephone usage. The telephone usage parameter was derived from an analysis of the most recently available National Health Interview Survey data. 11 The population density par ameter was derived from Census 2010 data at the county level. All other weighting parameters were derived from an analysis of the 2014 American Community Survey 1 -year PUMS file. The margins of error reported and statistical tests of significance are adjus ted to account for the survey’s design effect, a measure of how much efficiency is lost from the weighting procedures. The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of c onfidence for different groups in the survey: 11 Blumberg, Stephen J., and Julian V. Luke. 2015. “ Wireless Substitution: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, January -June 2015 .” National Center for Health Statistics. December. Group Unweighted sample size Plus or minus … Total social media users 2,335 2.3 percentage points Non -Hispanic, white social media users 1,121 3.3 percentage points Non -Hispanic, black social media users 594 4.6 percentage points Hispanic social media users 403 5.6 percentage points 30 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org Sample sizes and sampling errors for other subgroups are available upon request. In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls. Pew Research Center undertakes all polling activity, including calls to mobile telephone numbers, in compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protect ion Act and other applicable laws. Content Analysis The analysis of the conversations on Twitter regarding race was conducted using the Center’s content analysis rules with computer coding software developed by Crimson Hexagon (CH). Crimson Hexagon is a s oftware platform that identifies statistical patterns in words used in online texts. Researchers enter key terms using Boolean search logic so the software can identify relevant ma terial to analyze. The Center draws its analysis sample from all public Twit ter posts. Then a researcher trains the software to classify documents using examples from those collected posts.

Finally, the software classifies the rest of the online content according to the patterns derived during the training. While automated sentim ent analysis is not perfect, the Center has conducted numerous tests and determined that Crimson Hexagon’s method of analysis is among the most accurate tools available. Multiple tests suggest that results from human coders and Crimson Hexagon are generall y in agreement between 75% and 83% of the time. Additional tests for this project showed agreement of more than 85% for these specific analyses. For this r eport, researchers created four separate queries (also known as monitors). The first was on all Twitt er conversation pertainin g to race. The next three were focused on the use of the hashtags #BlackLivesMatt er, #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter. For all monitors, only English -language tweets were included. The unit of analysis for all monitors was the tweet or post. Twitter conversation about race The time period examined for the race -focused conversation on Twitter was Jan. 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016. There were two major steps to this query. The first step involved coming up with a long list of terms that could be used as a Boolean search query to identify all tweets that could be mentioning race. (A tweet was considered relevant if it included an explicit reference to the concept of race in general, blacks or whites.) To do this, 31 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org researchers created a list of 50 words, abbreviations and phrases that are likely to appear in tweets about race. This list consisted of words such as “white” and “race” and “racism ,” along with abbreviations such as “blk ,” hashtags such as “blktwitter” and a number of commonl y used slang terms. Researchers created the list through a lengthy process of testing after an examination of thousands of relevant tweets. Researchers also referred to word clouds created by Crimson Hexagon’s tool to make sure there were no common terms m issing from the query. In addition, researchers created a list of terms to be excluded from the query that were commonly used phrases that were not about race. These included terms such as “White Sox ,” “race day” and “Chris Brown .” The goal of creating t hese lists for the search was to collect all possible tweets that could be discussing race – even the ones that included these terms but were not about race. CH’s algorithm has the ability to determine the relevance of posts to the subject matter being inv estigated, and researchers would use the software to filter out posts that were captured in the query but not relevant to the project. The second step in creating this monitor was to train the CH algorithm to identify race -related tweets and to categorize them according to their subject matter. To do this, researchers created a list of six thematic categories plus one for posts that were “off topic” or irrelevant to this project. The categories were as follows:  Related to current events – focused on 2016 ca mpaign  Related to current events – focused on police or judicial system  Related to current events – focused on celebrities or entertainment  Related to current events – focused on things other than above categories  About discrimination, but not tied to spe cific current events  Related to race, but not explicitly about racial discrimination  Off topic or irrelevant In accordance with CH’s best practices, researchers categorized more than 20 sample posts for each of the above categories. As an additional step to ensure validity, two researchers were involved. The first researcher categorized posts and a second researcher reviewed the training categorization to see if they would have coded any posts differently. In the rare cases where the two researchers disagr eed about the categorization of a specific post, the post was removed from the training. 32 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org After the training and double checking was completed, the CH algorithm applied that categorization to the millions of other tweets to determine how many posts were abo ut race and how many of the tweets fit into each category. In total, the query returned a total of 1.1 billion tweets. However, the monitor determined that 995 million of those tweets were relevant to this project , while the remaining 137 million tweets w ere considered “off topic” and excluded from the analysis . Use of the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter, #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter on Twitter The queries for the two other CH monitors were much simpler to create since their search terms were more stra ight forward. All tweets that included th e hashtags #BlackLivesMatter, #AllLivesMatter or #BlueLivesMatter were included in the analysis, so there was no need for an “off topic” category or a long keyword search. Two different time periods were examined. The first timeframe was July 12, 2013, to March 31, 2016 , and only examined tweets with #BlackLivesMatter or #AllLivesMatter . In total, there were 11,781,7 21 tweets included in the #BlackLivesMatter monitor and 1,551,193 tweets included in the #AllLivesMat ter monitor. The specific Boolean keyword search for the #BlackLivesMatter monitor was: #blacklivesmatter OR blacklivesmatter The specific Boolean keyword search for the #AllLivesMatter monitor was: #alllivesmatter OR alllivesmatter The seven categories for the #BlackLivesMatter monitor were as follows:  Support of #BlackLivesMatter movement – general support  Support of #BlackLivesMatter movement – focused on specific incidents of alleged police misconduct  Neutral references to #BlackLivesMatter hashtag or movement  Criticism of #BlackLivesMatter hashtag or movement  General race issues not clearly tied to #BlackLivesMatter hashtag or movement  2016 campaign 33 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org  Miscellaneous The eight categories for the #AllLivesMatter monitor were as follows:  Support of #AllLive sMatter movement – general support  Support of #AllLivesMatter movement – focused on support for police or firefighters  Opposition to #BlackLivesMatter movement  Neutral references to #AllLivesMatter hashtag or movement  Criticism of #AllLivesMatter hashtag o r movement  Pro -life/anti -abortion  Animal rights  Miscellaneous The second time period examined was July 5 to July 13, 2016. The same search terms for #AllLivesMatter and #BlackLivesMatter were used as above. An additional monitor was created for #BlueLivesMatter following the same set of rules. (#BlackLivesMatter appe ared approximately 800,000 times in the period from April 1 to July 4, 2016, but those tweets were not included in the following analysis.) During this time, there were 4,945,229 tweets with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, 633,106 tweets with #AllLivesMatte r and 415,329 tweets with #BlueLi vesMatter . For all three of these monitors, the main categories were as follows:  Support for the given hashtag  Opposition for the given hashtag  Neutral references for the given hashtag For the hashtag #BlueLivesMatter, an a dditional subcategory was created underneath the “support” category to measure the amount of tweets that directly criticized President Obama. For the hashtag # BlackLivesMatter, an additional subcategory was created underneath the “opposition” category to m easure the amount of tweets that directly connected the Black Lives Matter movement with violence. As with the monitor on all racially focused tweets, two researchers were involved in the training process for these monitors. One researcher categorized the posts , while a second reviewed the training. In the rare cases where the two researchers disagreed about the categorization of a specific post, the post was removed from the training. 34 PEW RESEARCH CENTER www.pew research .org Topline questionnaire PEW RESEARCH CENTER 2016 RACIAL ATTITUDE S IN AMERI CA III FINAL TOPLINE FEBRUARY 29 -MAY 8, 2016 NOTE: ALL NUMBERS ARE PERCENTAGES. THE PERCENTAGES LESS THAN 0.5% ARE REPLACED BY AN ASTERISK (*). COLUMNS/ROWS MAY NOT TOTAL 100% DUE TO ROUNDING. ALL TRENDS REFERENCE SURVEYS FROM THE PEW RESEARCH CENTER UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. THROUGHOUT THIS TOPLINE, FOR ALL PEW RESEARCH CENTER FIGURES, WHITES AND BLACKS INCLUDE ONLY NON -HISPANICS AND HISPANICS ARE OF ANY RACE. ASK ALL: SNSINT2 Do you ever use a social networking site like Facebook or Twitter? Total Whites Blacks Hispanics 64 Yes 62 63 63 36 No 37 37 37 * Don't know/Refused (VOL) * * 1 IF USE SNS (SNSINT2=1): Q.13a Thinking about the different types of posts you see on social networking sites, approximately how many would you say are about race or race relations - most of them, some of them, only a few of them, or none of them? BASED ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE USER S [n=2,335]: Total Whites Blacks Hispanics 9 Most 6 24 14 34 Some 29 44 40 41 Only a few 48 27 31 14 None 16 5 13 1 Don't know/Refused (VOL) 1 1 2 (n=1,121) (n=594) (n=403) IF USE SNS (SNSINT2=1): Q.13b And thinking about the things you, personally, post or share on social networking sites, approximately how many would you say are about race or race relations - most of them, some of them, only a few of them, or none of them? BASED ON SOCIAL NETWORKING S ITE USERS [n=2,335]: Total Whites Blacks Hispanics 2 Most 1 8 4 11 Some 7 19 16 26 Only a few 24 30 30 60 None 67 42 49 1 Don’t post about anything (VOL) 1 * 1 * Don't know/Refused (VOL) * 0 * (n=1,121) (n=594) (n=403)