What are People Talking about in #BlackLivesMatter and #StopAsianHate? Exploring and Categorizing Twitter Topics Emerging in Online Social Movements through the Latent Dirichlet Allocation Model

Social media movements discuss diverse topics beyond protest logistics: Analysis of over one million tweets from #BlackLivesMatter and #StopAsianHate revealed that these movements engaged in substantive discussions about social justice, social movements, and emotional sentiments—indicating that online activism encompasses complex conversations rather than simple calls to action.

Different social movements have distinct priorities despite shared values: While both BLM and SAH movements shared common themes around social justice, the study found each movement had "unique subtopics," suggesting that different communities facing racism prioritize and discuss different aspects of their experiences online.

Large-scale data analysis provides more complete picture than traditional methods: The researchers used computational analysis of over one million tweets rather than relying solely on qualitative interviews or small-sample studies, demonstrating that AI-powered text analysis can reveal patterns that manual review might miss and provide more representative insights into what diverse participants are actually discussing.

Emotional expression is central to online social movements: The prominence of "emotional sentiments" as a common topic across both movements suggests that social media enables people to not only organize but also collectively process and validate emotional responses to injustice—an important function of these platforms.

Responsible AI requires understanding how algorithms shape social discourse: By studying what people actually discuss in social movements, researchers can better understand how social media platforms and their recommendation algorithms either amplify or suppress important conversations about racism and social justice.