Online engagement between opposing political protest groups via social media is linked to physical violence of offline encounters

Opposing groups might use unstructured online environments for hostile interactions, which can significantly impact their offline encounters. Online engagement in these unregulated spaces often escalates tensions and fosters negative dynamics between the groups. This hostile online interaction can worsen relationships, creating an environment ripe for conflict. The escalating hostility fostered online links to the observed rise in physical violence during offline meetings. Understanding this link reveals risks of unstructured online engagement and its impact on real-world interactions and violence.

With the technological advancement and the rise of the Internet and social media has opened the opportunity for individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, and opinions to communicate with each other in an open as well as in a largely unstructured way. Here, one important question that arises is, whether the nature of online engagements among groups relates to the nature of encounters between these groups that occur in the real world.

Online Engagement and Its Role in Escalating Offline Violence and Extremism

The psychologists of Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands have analyzed online conversations which had occurred between members of protest groups from opposite sides of the political spectrum, after obtaining information from Facebook event pages that was used to organize upcoming political protests and rallies in the United States and the United Kingdom and the event of violence during these protests and rallies. Researchers used natural language processing to show that increased online engagement links to higher real-world violence. Online engagement between groups is substantial but often negative, brief, and low in integrative complexity.

These findings suggest opposing groups use unstructured online environments to engage hostily with each other. This could worsen relationships and explain the observed increase in physical violence during offline meetings between groups. These findings also raise important questions as to whether unstructured online communication is compatible with positive inter group contact. This also highlights the role that the Internet might be playing in the wider issues of extremism, radicalization and likewise.