- June 08, 2026
- By Gregory Muraski
While it’s well known that social media can amplify online hate, new research out of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business finds that prosocial strategies used there can also reduce its spread.
Eaman Jahani, assistant professor in the Department of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies, was first author of a study posted on the open-access research-sharing platform arXiv on the results of the largest randomized controlled trial ever conducted on hate‑speech prevention, carried out on X (formerly Twitter) in Nigeria. The nation has one of the world’s youngest and most digitally engaged populations, and X plays a significant role in shaping public discourse.
Using the platform’s advertising system, the researchers delivered 42-second, prosocial video messages featuring prominent Nigerian celebrities to users who had previously engaged with ethnic hate speech. They reduced their hate‑speech output by 2.5% to 5.5% during the 20-week campaign, and roughly 75% of that reduction persisted for at least four months after the ads stopped running.
In addition, when a large share of a user’s followers saw the videos, reposts of that user’s hateful content dropped sharply—even among followers who never received the ads themselves. For the most exposed accounts, hate reposts fell by more than 50%.
Jahani said the intervention may not immediately shift the behavior of large producers. “But we can change the behavior of their consumers and shift their attention to non‑hate content, which in turn will influence the type of content the producer generates.”
This proactive approach, he said, complements, rather than replaces, traditional moderation.
“As platforms evolve and moderation resources fluctuate, we need solutions that are both effective and scalable,” he said. “This study shows that cost‑effective and non‑invasive interventions can make a measurable difference.”