Tired: Autistic people are ~just like you~! We have more in common than we do differences! Wired: Autistic people can be super weird and you might feel like you can’t relate to our experiences, but you don’t need to have things in common with someone to respect their existence.

— Amythest/gemythest (@neurowonderful)

July 15, 2018

Researchers of minority language media are increasingly interested in the role of internet-based communication in language usage, maintenance, and revitalisation. This study explores the use of hashtags signifying the Welsh/Cymraeg, Frisian/Frysk, and Irish/Gaeilge languages on Twitter. 

Acknowledging the challenges of interpreting social media data, we focus on the hashtag and what it can tell us about the social and digital lives of minority languages. Specifically, we examine the agents using those hashtags, the topics they discuss, the languages used and the extent to which ambient communities may be formed through their use. 

Our analysis reveals different types of agents who are active and who have a variety of purposes in applying the minority language hashtag – sometimes to promote content in the minority language, more often to draw attention to content about those languages. Comparative analysis between the three language hashtags reveals statistically significant differences along a number of different dimensions, indicating that each minority language hashtag community has its own unique character.

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Language revitalization theory suggests that one way to improve the health of a language is to increase the number of domains where the language is used. Social network platforms provide a variety of domains where indigenous-language communities are able to communicate in their own languages. 

Although the capability exists, is social networking being used by indigenous-language communities? This paper reports on one particular social networking platform, Twitter, by using two separate methodologies. 

First, Twitter statistics collated from the Indigenous Tweets website are analysed. The data show that languages such as Basque, Haitian Creole, Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Frisian and Kapampangan do have a presence in the “Twittersphere”. Further analysis for te reo Māori (the Māori language) shows that tweets in te reo Māori are rising and peak when certain events occur. 

The second methodology involved gathering empirical data by tweeting in te reo Māori. This served two purposes: it allowed an ancillary check on the validity of the Indigenous Tweets data and it allowed the opportunity to determine if the number of indigenous-language tweets could be influenced by the actions of one tweeter.

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The development of written literature in languages which are not usually written by their speakers can be confounded by a circular problem. Potential writers are reluctant or unmotivated to write in a language that no one can read. But at the same time, why learn to read a language for which there is nothing available to read? The writers wait for the readership, while the readers wait for material. 

In this paper I argue that Twitter can be used effectively to support burgeoning writers of languages for which no current readership exists by partnering writers with volunteer readers who do not need to know the target language. I lay out a model for this type of work that is an effective way for outside linguists and their students to support indigenous language activists.

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We Built a Bot That Trolls Twitter's Worst Anti-Semitic Trolls

As the No. 2 most-harassed Jewish journalist on Twitter per the Anti-Defamation League, I've become intimately familiar with the colorful cast of anti-Jewish bigots that populate social media. There are those who will photoshop you into gas chambers and concentration camps. Others like pairing Nazi ...

www.tabletmag.com

But there is one particular type of anti-Semitic troll that I find particularly pernicious: the racists who use their accounts to impersonate Jews and defame them. The con goes like this: The troll finds a picture of a very Jewish-looking person online—typically a Hasidic Jew in full regalia—and makes it his avatar. He puts a bunch of very Jewish descriptors in his bio (“Orthodox,” “Zionist,” “enemy of the alt-right”). He then proceeds to insert himself into conversations with prominent Twitter users—conversations that will often be read by tens of thousands of followers—and say horrifically racist things. Thus, it appears to unsuspecting readers that Jews are outlandishly bigoted. The same has been done with other minorities, from Latinos to African-Americans to Muslims.

The problem is, most casual social media users aren’t even aware that this sort of racist deception is being perpetrated, let alone trained to be vigilant for it. And Twitter isn’t really capable of the detective work to identify these accounts and take them down as they spring up.So the question becomes: How can users fight back? Can this insidious tool of anti-Semitic harassment be defanged like the (((echoes))) that were previously used by internet bigots? The answer is yes, and it takes the form of a Twitter bot.Working with developer Neal Chandra, we created an automated Twitter account that exposes these imposters in real-time. Meet Imposter Buster, social media’s new sheriff. He is programmed with an updated database of impersonator accounts, and every time one of them tweets, he automatically replies and exposes them with pre-programmed evidence:

So, have you encountered a racist troll impersonating a Jew, African-American, Latino, Muslim, or other minority on Twitter? Send it my way at [email protected] and we’ll put the bot on the case. And do be sure to follow Imposter Buster and his exploits on Twitter!