Uncommon Yet Consequential Online Harms

Abstract

A consistent finding from recent research on harmful online behaviors is that they tend to be concentrated among a small number of individuals. Whether examining misinformation (Grinberg et al. 2019; Guess, Nagler, and Tucker 2019; Allen et al. 2020), radicalizing or partisan content (Hosseinmardi et al. 2021; Muise et al. 2022), or hate speech (Zannettou et al. 2020), a small number of individuals typically accounts for the vast majority of the behavior. Despite this statistical infrequency, the social consequences of such behaviors can be substantial, especially for people targeted by, or within the social networks of, the individuals perpetuating them.