80% of Facebook posts mentioning Roma have offensive content

On January 11th in Sofia was held a press conference, organized by the Center “Amalipe”, dedicated to the results of a survey conducted in the period September 1 – November 30, 2023. The project, called COACH (Countering Online Anti-Gypsyism and Cyber-Aggression), uses a methodology and automatic analysis algorithms designed to track offensive or prejudicial content in Facebook posts related to Roma.

Boyan Zahariev of the Open Society Institute presented the results at the press conference, stressing that nearly 80% of the posts in Bulgarian Facebook groups that mention Roma contain offensive or prejudiced content. Accordingly, only 22% of the posts are positive or neutral.

The study includes the analysis of 1252 texts, and after the experimental processing about 1100 materials were identified. These publications were classified into nine categories, including direct insult, irony, sarcasm, jokes, stories involving animals, prejudice, and others.

Zahariev stressed that between 4 and 10 percent of the posts were ironic or sarcastic towards Roma, while just over 11 percent reinforced stereotypes. It is also pointed out that of the total, up to 15% are direct insults, and these are not always easily distinguishable from general insults.

The COUCH project, as Zahariev explained, is aimed at combating online antigypsyism and cyber hate speech, aiming to understand the public perception of Roma on social networks and how hate speech can be countered. The methodology and the algorithms used for the automatic analysis were developed by a consortium of organisations from MRG-Hungary, the Institute of Human Rights-Slovakia, and the Amalipe Centre within the COUCH (Countering Online Antigypsyism and Cyber Hate) project. The project is funded by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV).

The issue of Roma integration in society was also discussed during the press conference. Amalipe President Deyan Kolev expressed his belief that the main problem is not the lack of funding, but the lack of public support for integration policies and political determination to implement them. Despite possible concerns, Kolev stressed the importance of encouraging Roma not to hide their identity and not to deny it. He also noted the need to showcase the good examples and successes of Roma while avoiding finger-pointing.

The event concluded with a statement on the need for more targeted integration policies and increased public participation in support of the Roma community.

The project is funded by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV).