Covid-19: Huge surge of hate speech toward Chinese on Twitter

'Toxic tweets are using explicit language to accuse Asians of carrying the coronavirus and blaming people of Asian origin as a collective for spreading the virus,' the study found. — AFP

LOS ANGELES: The coronavirus outbreak has led to a 900% uptick in hate speech toward China and Chinese people on Twitter, according to a report by a tech startup.

"People are spending more and more time on social networks, communication apps, chat rooms and gaming services, and the problems endemic to these platforms – hate, abuse, toxicity and bullying – have become accentuated," the Israel-based company L1ght said in its report.