Presented at ICWSM 2016

1. Are you Charlie or Ahmed?
Cultural pluralism in Charlie Hebdo response
on Twitter
Jisun An, Haewoon Kwak, Yelena Mejova,
Sonia Alonso Saenz De Oger*, and Braulio Gomez Fortes**
Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI),
*: Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Qatar,
**: Deusto University, Spain
ICWSM
2016

2. 2015 Charlie Hebdo Shooting

7. A radical
defense of
freedom
of speech
A defense
of the
compatibility
between
Islam and
freedom of
speech

8. #jesuis
charlie
#jesuis
charlie #jesuis
charlie#jesuis
ahmed
#jesuis
ahmed
What social factors contributes to
reactions on Twitter?

9. Culture,
religion, …
Offline
context
Personal
connection
What social factors affect your
opinion?

10. Clash of
Civilization
Density
Theory
Interdependence
Theory
Theories behind each dimension

11. Our goal:
To understand the social factors that
contribute to online individual behavior
Clash of
Civilization
Density
Theory
Interdependence
Theory

12. Our goal:
To understand the social factors that
contribute to online individual behavior
Clash of
Civilization
Density
Theory
Interdependence
Theory

13. “The fundamental source
of conflict in this new
world will not be
primarily ideological or
primarily economic.
…
The dominating source of
conflict will be cultural.”
by Samuel P. Huntington

15. Charlie Hebdo and
Clash of civilization
Western Christian
civilization
Islamic
civilization

16. Charlie Hebdo and
Clash of civilization
Western Christian
civilization
Islamic
civilization
A higher proportion of
pro-Muslim tweets
(#JSA)

17. Charlie Hebdo and
Clash of civilization
Western Christian
civilization
Islamic
civilization
A higher proportion
of pro-free speech
tweets (#JSC)

18. Our goal:
To understand the social factors that
contribute to online individual behavior
Clash of
Civilisation
Density
Theory
Interdependence
Theory

19. Density theory
“Individual behavior is density dependent
and hence varies as a function of aggregate population
characteristics”
by huckfeldt, 2009

20. For Westerners,
their behaviour or attitude towards Charlie Hebdo
attack varies as a function of the % of muslim.

21. Possible reactions of Westerners by
prominent of Muslim diasporas
Understanding
and empathy

22. Possible reactions of Westerners by
prominent of Muslim diasporas
U
and empathy
Threats and
fear

23. Density theory
the proportion of Muslims
in the population
(Aggregated population characteristic)
the
proportion
of
pro-Muslim
tweets
(Reaction of
Westerners)
[H2a] The higher the proportion
of Muslims in the population,
the higher the proportion of
pro-Muslim tweets.
[H2a]
More Muslims,
More Understanding

24. Density theory
the proportion of Muslims
in the population
the
proportion
of
pro-Muslim
tweets
[H2b] The higher the
proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the
proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b]
More Muslims,
More Fear

25. Our goal:
To understand the social factors that
contribute to online individual behavior
Clash of
Civilisation
Density
Theory
Interdependence
Theory

26. By interacting with
others on a daily basis
we negotiate
relationships in order
to derive some benefit,
and in this process
we change ourselves.

27. [H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab
networks, users are likely to tweet similar
content to that of their neighborhood.
Interdependence theory

28. Density
theory
Interdependence
theory
Clash
of
civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are
likely to tweet similar content to that of their
neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western
Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim
tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.

29. Density
theory
Interdependence
theory
Clash
of
civilization
[H2a] The higher
population
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within
likely to tweet similar content to that of their
neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in
Christian civilisation countries
tweets by users in the
Western and Islamic “civilization”
Location of a user Muslim identification
Social network

30. Western and Islamic “civilizations”

31. 11M tweets with #CharlieHebdo,
#JeSuisCharlie, and #JeSuisAhmed

32. Twitter Data
#Charlie
Hebdo
#JeSuis
Charlie
#JeSuis
Ahmed
All
Rick’s dataset
7.1M
(2M)
6.5M
(2M)
264K
(170K)
11M
(3M)
Remove users
having less than 2 tweets or more than 148 tweets
8.8M
(1.4M)
Locating users:
Geotagged + Yahoo! PlaceMaker
4M
(642K)
39 countries of
interests
1.37M
(290K)
1.62M
(309K)
42K
(26K)
3M
(464K)
Social network
932M tweets, 23M mentioned user
276M links (0.6% are reciprocal)
3M
(464K)

33. IdentificationMuslim
ccc
VS
Muslim Non-Muslim

34. Identification
“94% of Arabs are Muslims”
by CIA, The World Factbook 2010
Muslim
Arabic
*Exceptions: Iran and Turkey

35. Arabic Identification
By Language:
Any user who
tweets in Arabic
has a name in Arabic
set their language on Twitter as Arabic
By Arabic names in English:
We build a dictionary of 4,401 Arabic names in English
using baby name lexicons.
majority voting
with
CLD2, langid.py,
and LangDetect

36. Arabic Identification
Out of 464K users,
5.3% of users (23,924) are “Arab”.

37. We focus on “Western” users

38. Density
theory
Interdependence
theory
Clash
of
civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are
likely to tweet similar content to that of their
neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western
Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim
tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.

39. Density
theory
Interdependence
theory
Clash
of
civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3]
likely to tweet similar content to that of their
neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western
Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim
tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.

40. Percentage of tweets mentioning each hashtags
The relative proportion of #JSC to #JSA
is strikingly different in two groups
For Arab, 1 #JSA tweet / 10 #JSC tweet
For Non-Arab, 1 #JSA tweet / 43 #JSC tweet

41. Percentage of tweets mentioning each hashtags
The relative proportion of #JSC to #JSA
is strikingly different in two groups
For Arab, 1 #JSA tweet / 10 #JSC tweet
For Non-Arab, 1 #JSA tweet / 43 #JSC tweet
Support for H1?

42. Density
theory
Interdependence
theory
Clash
of
civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3]
likely to tweet similar content to that of their
neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western
Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim
tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Weak support

43. Density
theory
Interdependence
theory
Clash
of
civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3]
likely to tweet similar content to that of their
neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western
Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim
tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Weak support

44. The proportion of Muslims in the population
vs. the proportion of pro-Islam tweets
#JSA tweets
#JSC + #JSA tweets

45. *we exclude Turkey and Iran
r=0.745 r=0.845 r=0.675
Westerners who live in Middle Eastern countries
tend to tweet more with #JSA than those who live
in the West

46. *we exclude Turkey and Iran
r=0.745 r=0.845 r=0.675
Westerners in the Middle East tend to tweet
more with #JSA than those who live in the West
Non-Arab users
r=0.845

47. r=0.745 r=0.845 r=0.675
Arab in the West tend to tweet more with
#JSC than those who live in the Middle East
Arab users
*we exclude Turkey and Iran
r=0.675

48. Our data
shows …
r=0.845
Westerners
in
Middle-­‐east
Westerners
in
West
If only clash of
civilisation mattered,
then the group should
look like this,
Pseudo Graph

49. Density
theory
Interdependence
theory
Clash
of
civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3]
likely to tweet similar content to that of their
neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western
Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim
tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Mixed
Support

50. Density
theory
Interdependence
theory
Clash
of
civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are
likely to tweet similar content to that of their
neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western
Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim
tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Mixed
Support

51. A Westerner

52. ccc
ccc
ccc
ccc
ccc
ccc
Arab mention
Arab mention
Non-Arab
Non-Arab
Non-Arab
Non-Arab
Non-Arab
Non-Arab
A Westerner

53. Mean percentage of JSA tweets for four user groups
in conditions with and without Arab mentions.
How does Arab mention affect #JSA
tweeting behavior?

54. Mean percentage of JSA tweets for four user groups
in conditions with and without Arab mentions.
The personal mentions in users’
interactions do affect
1.26
3.03
5.37
9.86
2.83
15.76

55. Pearson and Spearman correlations of % of JSA
tweets to % of Arab mentions in the mention
network by different user groups.
More Arab mentions, more #JSA tweets

56. Density
theory
Interdependence
theory
Clash
of
civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are
likely to tweet similar content to that of their
neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western
Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim
tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Mixed
Support
Support

57. Density
theory
Interdependence
theory
Clash
of
civilization
[H2a] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the higher the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H2b] The higher the proportion of Muslims in the
population, the lower the proportion of pro-Islam tweets.
[H3] Within mixed Arab/non-Arab networks, users are
likely to tweet similar content to that of their
neighborhood.
[H1] More pro-free speech tweets by users in Western
Christian civilisation countries & more pro-Muslim
tweets by users in the islamic civilisation countries.
Mixed
Support
Support

58. Takeaway
Clash of civilization has a mixed result, needs to be
rejected or at least qualified, in favor of social
context theories.
Social context is important in examining online
behavior.
Both offline social context and personal mentions in users’
interactions do affect the likelihood of expressing an opinion
favorable to #JeSuisAhmed.
“Offline” distinction is a stronger predictor of online
behavior.

59. QCRI
Georgetown University, Qatar
Deusto University, Spain
@JisunAn, @haewoon, @yelenamejova
Sonia Alonso Saenz De Oger
Braulio Gomez Fortes
Are you Charlie or Ahmed?
Cultural pluralism in Charlie Hebdo response
on Twitter