ACID: On the Perception of Online Classism

Abstract

Socioeconomic status (SES) structures social inequality and underlies class-based discrimination that is often rationalised through stereotypes expressed in public discourse. However, despite extensive research on hate speech detection in Natural Language Processing, classism detection remains an underexplored phenomenon. We introduce ACID, a cross-cultural corpus with over 1.15 million instances, to investigate classism across YouTube and Twitter from 14 English-speaking countries. We examine (i) which stereotypes are invoked towards lower-SES, (ii) whether blame for lower-SES is attributed to individuals or structural factors, and (iii) whether these people are portrayed offensively. Across platforms, explanations are predominantly framed in terms of individual responsibility. Across countries, class stereotypes consistently revolve around moralized notions of dependency, laziness, and ignorance, revealing a shared global structure of class-based stigma. Our dataset and analysis are a foundation to advance research on class-based discrimination and its representation in online discourse.

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