The LQ score was added to the number of Ku Klux Klan organizations known to operate in the state, according to a list compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a watchdog organization that monitors hate groups.
A score above 1.0 indicates that the proportion of racist tweets to non-racist tweets is higher than the national proportion. So, per the team’s model, an LQ score of 1.0 indicates that the state’s proportion of racist tweets to non-racist tweets is the same as the overall national proportion. To normalize states across population levels, the team then used a location quotient-inspired measure or LQ score - an economic derivation used to analyze norms across geographical locations - to compare a state’s racist tweets to the national average of racist tweets. They then sorted the tweets according to the state they were sent from, and compared the racist tweets to the total number of geocoded tweets coming from that state during the same time period, Nov. The team searched Twitter for racism-revealing terms and phrases that appeared in the context of tweets mentioning “Obama,” “re-elected,” or “won.” The research group took advantage of the tweets’ geo-codes, which is data showing where they originated from in the U.S.
Analysts at Floating Sheep, a website run by a group of independent cyber-geography researchers, found there was a spike of racist tweets on Twitter during and after President Obama’s 2012 re-election.
