Hate speech toward migrants on a citizen reporting platform concentrates in neighborhoods undergoing demographic change
This study investigates how immigration influences social inclusion or exclusion in urban neighborhoods at fine-grained spatiotemporal scales, with a focus on the spatial patterns of xenophobic discourse. Leveraging over 550,000 geolocated citizen reports from Chile’s SOSAFE platform and employing a fine-tuned Spanish-language hate speech classifier validated through manual annotation, the research uncovers a “digital boundary” phenomenon: hate speech is not concentrated in traditional immigrant enclaves but instead clusters significantly in neighborhoods where newcomers constituted more than one-third of residents after 2010 and experienced rapid demographic shifts. Conversely, areas with higher educational attainment and fewer recent immigrants emerge as coldspots. The study also reveals that reports referencing immigrants or containing hateful content elicit substantially higher user engagement, underscoring the role of online platforms in reflecting societal tensions.