Inside the 48-hour window that turns a digital spat into a street fight
New research published today by London’s Violence Reduction Unit reveals that algorithms promote and serve up violent content that rapidly escalates conflict, writes Director Lib Peck
Picture this: you wake up in the morning, reach for your phone and see that ‘beef’ which started as an argument between two people you know is now centre stage on social media, seen by 57,000 people and growing by the minute.
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There are hundreds and hundreds of comments demanding a mass meet-up and violence, with fists, with weapons, but ultimately, violence.
For young people, seeing this type of situation playing out online is the norm. What’s also part of everyday life is whether they are interested in seeing this dispute and subsequent fight footage in live graphic detail or not, it’s more than likely it will turn up in their social media feed anyway.
We know this because new research published today by London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) reveals that algorithms promote and serve up violent content that rapidly escalates conflict. We found that social media has changed the scale of arguments, making them public and involving hundreds, sometimes thousands, of complete strangers. And algorithms ensure that those involved and those who aren’t can't escape, intensifying the dispute and keeping it alive for weeks, or indeed months.
We asked M&C Saatchi World Services, Nisien.Ai and Shout Out UK to identify and analyse the role social media plays in violence and how misogyny online fuels violence offline. The findings, which came from analysing content on X, as it’s the only social media platform with location data allowing us to capture a picture for London, will shape how we intend to tackle online and digital safety for young people. But there’s clearly more we need to understand.
For example, through focus groups and interviews with young people, we found there was an association between violent content and physical violence that happens away from public platforms in group chats and on social media sites with disappearing messages.
Our study mapped misogyny online and public moments like the trial coverage of Andrew Tate, the UK women’s march and the Netflix release of Adolescence against police data. The independent analysis showed a statistically significant association between online misogyny and police-recorded violence against women and girls. When we saw misogynistic content increase, we also saw violence against women and girls in London increase on the same day. It is important to be clear that we cannot infer causation from the analysis, but the finding suggests an association that demands further exploration.
This research has given us a wealth of insight into how and where we can intervene to prevent what is seen online from spilling out into violence on our streets or behind closed doors. We need to match what’s happening online with innovation off it. We will be drawing from our seven years’ experience of delivering a public health approach to tackling online and digital safety for young people. With the Mayor of London’s support and building on the work he has been leading to tackle the manosphere and tech abuse, we are investing £5 million in pioneering interventions.
Acknowledging that there is a 48-hour window to prevent an online dispute from escalating to violence, we will deliver the first-ever city-wide targeted bystander de-escalation programme. It will give young people the skills to recognise and challenge harmful online behaviours on private channels. We will also fund an innovative programme of digital youth work so that London’s youth workers are trained to adapt to support young people both on and offline.
We’ll fund targeted mentoring for girls and young women either experiencing or at greatest risk of online harm, and we know it’s equally important to support boys and young men, which is why we’ll deliver programmes focused on masculinity through positive role models and coaches.
The Southport Inquiry continues to stress the need not just for earlier identification of young people influenced by social media and violent content, but for a recognition that local, joined-up responses are crucial and can play a vital role. We’re committed to learning from our research and findings from the inquiry to make platforms safer for young people and create places that provide connection, support and opportunity.
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Lib Peck is Director of London’s Violence Reduction Unit.
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