What Happens If Ableist Microaggressions On Social Media Aren’t Picked By Artificial Intelligence?

Merriam Webster defines the term microagression as “a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority).”

While microaggressions are commonly associated with in-person interactions, they can significantly affect how disabled people use social media, where algorithms aren’t attuned to detecting more ‘subtler’ forms of ableist behaviour, according to the study Nothing Micro about It: Examining Ableist Microaggressions on Social Media.

The study investigates how disabled people experience, respond, and cope with ableist microaggressions on social media, while exploring ways to address ongoing harm.

The authors write that disabled folks were routinely subjected to patronizing and infantilizing comments and messages, often received invasive questions around their disability, relationships and intimacy, and would find that platforms and users would censor their content:

Many participants mentioned that inaccessibility of social media content was a source of feeling unwelcome and excluded… [One participant] found it frustrating when content creators on TikTok and YouTube uploaded videos without closed captions. She also expressed resentment on exclusionary, content moderation systems that are ill-equipped to meet the needs of disabled people. She described how TikTok flagged her videos and banned her from live streaming believing her to be “underaged because of [her] dwarfism.” Participants also reported experiencing microaggressions when there was a delay addressing issues they experienced online. For example, while [another participant] recognized that she was blocked as a measure for minor safety, she found it frustrating that her appeal remained unaddressed for over a year.

In addition to the translation of in-person microaggressions into online forms, the study also found new forms of microaggressions that originated from social media, such as being ghosted and ignored.

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