Youth, Race and Social Media 

Accountability and Digital Empowerment 
 
The Youth, Race and Social Media project was a research study funded by Meta, conducted by a team of researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London. The aim of the project was to explore black and racially minoritised (BRM) young people's experiences of racial content on social media. Data was collected over two years with BRM young people aged 16-24 in the UK. 809 young people took part in an online survey and 110 young people took part in focus groups and interviews.





The Youth, Race and Social Media project was a research study funded by Meta, conducted by a team of researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London. The aim of the project was to explore black and racially minoritised (BRM) young people’s experiences of racial content on social media. Data was collected over two years with BRM young people aged 16-24 in the UK. 809 young people took part in an online survey and 110 young people took part in focus groups and interviews.

Almost all of the young people (95%) surveyed said they encounter racial content that is violent or abusive on social media. More than half (56%) of them saw this racist content at least once a week. For 16% of young people, it was a daily occurrence.

For many of them, this was targeted abuse. 30% of young people received targeted abuse in the form of racist private messages and 13% through people leaving racist comments on their posts. This potentially reflects a high level of backlash given that only 5% of young people indicated that they frequently create their own posts on the topic of race. 

More widely, 73% encountered racist comments on other’ people’s posts. On their feeds, overall, four fifths (79%) of young people reported that they encounter racially abusive written posts with three quarters (75%) encountering violent images and videos.


While young people’s experiences were overwhelmingly negative, 89% had encountered positive activism around issues of racial justice on social media. However, most young people in focus groups and interviews said that they rarely created content around race on social media and were disengaging from such content where they encountered it because of the negative consequences and sense of overwhelm. They reported a polarisation of debate around race, racist backlash where they did engage with it, and over-scrutiny of them as BRM people online. Young women faced particular forms of gendered and racist scrutiny including hyper-sexualisation and insults relating to their physical appearance. The young people recognised that responding to racist content only led to it being spread further and to an increase of such content on their own feeds. This led to a sense of helplessness and futility.




Around four fifths (79%) of young people in the survey had reported racist abuse to social media platforms and had either received no answer or were dissatisfied with the response. By contrast, only 6% had reported it to platforms and been satisfied with the outcome. Over half (53%) of young people wanted more opportunity for communication with platforms and 80% wanted more effective responses to reports of racism online. Most young people (90%) had not attempted to report online racism to police and only 1% had reported it to police and received a satisfactory response.

Young BRM people’s experiences on social media have a substantial impact on their offline lives. 58% of young people in the survey said their experience of racial content on social media makes them feel unsafe in their wider lives. 52% said it negatively impacts their relationships with authority figures and 42% said it harms their mental health. In focus groups and interviews, young people explained how the prolific sharing of videos and images of racist violence such as the murder of George Floyd by police, the violent body-searching of ‘child Q’ in school in Hackney, London and other examples of brutality all contributed to their sense of being unsafe more widely and their negative relationships with police and teachers.
Some young people said that what they see on social media has helped them to understand the extent and nature of racism. The most positive way in which young people do engage with race on social media is with others who are also from racially minoritised backgrounds and there are friendships and solidarity developed online in this way. This was particularly important for young people living in non-diverse communities where they don’t experience such solidarity offline.

Overall, young BRM people experience social media as a place where racism thrives unchecked and even well-intentioned sharing of racial content, such as police brutality and Black Lives Matters (BLM) protests, contributes to overwhelm, racist backlash and other potentially traumatising effects. The factors that led to Reni Eddo-Lodge (2017) to declare she was ‘no longer talking to white people about race’ are experienced sharply by young people in their engagement with social media where echo chambers, polarisation, gratuitous sharing of violence and anonymous trolling all make their experiences of talking about race or challenging racism on social media at best, futile and at worst, unsafe and a major risk to their wellbeing.



The research has clear implications for social media platforms and for policy more broadly. The main recommendation for social media platforms is for them to find new ways to engage and communicate with young people about their experiences and how they might develop more effective responses. The development of youth stakeholder groups for specific consultation with young people using their platforms is key here. Platforms also need to respond to young people’s desire for more user-control over what content they are exposed to and frustration with how algorithms work to spread content based on engagement, even when negative. 


The main recommendation for policy more widely is for the UK Government’s Online Safety Act 2025, to ensure that its implementation takes specific account of the experiences of young people from racialised backgrounds and encompasses specific and effective methods to combat racism on social media and provide supportive interventions to those affected by it. Again, this requires direct consultation with youth stakeholders about their experiences.



The full report can be accessed here as a pdf:

Youth, Race and Social Media Report 2026