How H|O|T is social media?  The answer may vary depending on the week, the platform and the news. 

A new measurement system devised by researchers at the University of Michigan School of Information allows users to see the levels of hateful speech, offensiveness and toxicity (H|O|T) in user comments about news stories on their favorite social media platforms. 

The metric is created by UMSI’s Center for Social Media Responsibility, UMSI professor Paul Resnick, postdoctoral research fellow Siqi Wu, software developer Vitaliy Lyapota and CSMR assistant director James Park. The interactive, easy-to-use tool allows users to check the “temperature” on Reddit, X and YouTube and do side-by-side comparisons and in-depth analyses of the platforms. 

“There are so many discussions about levels of toxic content on social media within civic discussion, and we are curious about the exact percentage of problematic speech,” Wu says. “This is a reliable, practical tool that helps people, especially journalists, monitor a platform's health and how that health changes over time.” 

The metric allows users to check reactions to news events, see toxic comments on various platforms and do week-by-week deep dives (and for other timeframes) into the data. Some of the data is unsurprising: For example, YouTube, because of its limited moderation practices, is consistently rated “hotter” than Reddit and X. 

Conversely, though many may believe X’s H|O|T metric would have risen substantially after Elon Musk’s takeover, the data says otherwise. 

"It's interesting to see that there are natural fluctuations, with some week's news bringing out hotter reactions on all three platforms," Wu says. "But it's also remarkable how stable the metric has been over the past two years. There are big differences between platforms, but within each platform there have been only small changes."

Researchers will soon be publishing a white paper of findings from the tool. Curious users can explore the data right now by visiting the H|O|T Speech website. 

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Learn more about the Center for Social Media Responsibility by visiting their website. 

— Noor Hindi, UMSI public relations specialist