Digital Hate: Perpetrators, Audiences, and (Dis)Empowered Targets

Publications

  • Accepted (3)

    • Nguyen, G., Bührer, S., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (accepted). Where hate finds its home: Exploring digital hate perpetrators' priorities across social media affordances and experiences with content moderation and user intervention against them. Information, Communication & Society.
    • Kirchmair, T., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (accepted). Annotation in action: Experimental perspectives on perceiving and labeling digital hate across four European countries. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies.
    • Saumer, M., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (accepted). Fantastic bystanders and where to find them: Do emotions fuel (in)direct interventions when bystanders face anti-LGBTQIA+ hostility on social media? Mass Communication and Society.

  • Advance Online Publication (6)

    • Khaleghipour, M., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2026). Over-time relationships of direct and indirect digital hate victimization on fundamental needs and prosocial bystander intervention: A two-wave panel study. Media Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2026.2636055
    • Koban, K., Bührer, S., & Matthes, J. (2026). All roads lead to hate? Examining five prediction paths for online incivility and intolerance perpetration. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990261429081
    • Saumer, M., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2026). Nudging against judging? Mitigating anti-LGBTQIA + online hostility by raising bystanders' awareness and behavioral intentions. Information, Communication & Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2026.2636134
    • Bührer, S., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2025). Misreading uncivil and intolerant anti-immigration content in digital spheres: The role of recent online perpetration. New Media & Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251401865
    • Matthes, J., Koban, K., Bührer, S., Kirchmair, T., Weiss, P., Khaleghipour, M., Saumer, M., & Meerson, R. (2025). The state of evidence in digital hate research: An umbrella review. Communication Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502251365724
    • Saumer, M., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2025). Digital she-nanigans: Social media users' response toward online hostilities targeting a female science communicator with marginalized identities. New Media & Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251342242

  • 2026 (2)

    • Khaleghipour, M., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2026). Caught in the storm: A qualitative study on digital hate targeting scholars. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 22, 101059. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2026.101059
    • Bührer, S., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2026). Immigration-related socio-cognitive dynamics driving digital hate: A four-country study on online incivility and intolerance perpetration. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 31(1), zmaf026. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmaf026

  • 2025 (6)

    • Meerson, R., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2025). Platform-led content moderation through the bystander lens: A systematic scoping review. Information, Communication & Society, 28(16), 3175-3192. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2483836
    • Khaleghipour, M., Koban, K., Stevic, A., & Matthes, J. (2025). Reflective smartphone disengagement as a coping strategy against cyberbullying: A cross-country study with emerging adults from the United States and Indonesia. New Media & Society, 27(10), 5640-5658. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241254015
    • Weiss, P., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2025). A narrow gateway from misogyny to the far right: Empirical evidence for social media exposure effects. Information, Communication & Society, 28(13), 2377-2395. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2445637
    • Matthes, J., Nguyen, G., Koban, K., Meerson, R., Khaleghipour, M., Garner, D., Bührer, S., & Kirchmair, T. (2025). Discursive consequences of social media hostility: Chilling effects, avoidance, and intervention behaviors of emerging adults in the U.S. and Indonesia. Computers in Human Behavior, 171, 108704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2025.108704
    • Khaleghipour, M., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2025). Listen to me! Target perceptions of digital hate: A scoping review of recent research. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 26(5), 1082-1096. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380241303725
    • Meerson, R., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2025). Too much of what? Two-wave panel evidence for selective (de-)sensitization through frequent exposure to different kinds of digital hate. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 30(2), zmaf002. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmaf002

  • 2024 (2)

    • Kirchmair, T., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2024). Four eyes, two truths: Explaining heterogeneity in perceived severity of digital hate against immigrants. Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, 49(3), 468-490. https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2023-0133
    • Bührer, S., Koban, K., & Matthes, J. (2024). The WWW of digital hate perpetration: What, who, and why? A scoping review. Computers in Human Behavior, 159, 108321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2024.108321