Study Shows Trump ‘Chinese Virus’ Tweet Spurred Increased Use of Racist Anti-Asian Hashtags

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A new study that analyzed then-President Donald Trump’s “Chinese virus” tweet found that it was followed by a dramatic increase in the use of racist anti-Asian hashtags.

This week’s mass murder spree has refocused attention on the anti-Asian sentiment that has grown during the coronavirus pandemic, and a new study shows that Trump’s words had an impact on that climate online:

A tweet by then-President Trump using the phrase “Chinese virus” sparked an increase in the use of anti-Asian hashtags on Twitter, according to a University of California, San Francisco study published on Wednesday. Researchers examined nearly 700,000 tweets containing more than 1 million hashtags in the days leading up to and after Mr. Trump’s tweet.

“The United States will be powerfully, supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!” Mr. Trump tweeted on March 16, 2020.

Researchers also found that those who used the hashtag #chinesevirus were significantly more likely to use other overtly racist hashtags. Those who used the hashtag #covid19 used fewer racist hashtags, however.

One researcher, UCSF epidemiology and biostatics assistant professor Yulin Hswen, told CBS San Francisco that “These results may be a proxy of growth in anti-Asian sentiment that was not as prevalent as before,” and that “Using racial terms associated with a disease can result in the perpetuation of further stigmatization of racial groups.”

The results come as Asian-American members of Congress publicly plead with their Republican colleagues to stop speaking about the coronavirus in terms that closely identify it with Asian people.