Investigating Cyberbullying in Social Media: The case of Twitter

Social media has profoundly changed how we interact with one another and the world around us. Recent research indicates that more and more people are using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter for a significant portion of their day for various reasons such as making new friends, socializing with old friends, receiving information, and entertaining themselves. However, social media has also caused some problems. One of the problems is called social media cyberbullying which has developed over time as new social media technologies have developed over time. Social media cyberbullying has received increasing attention in recent years as the media began shedding light on the devastating consequences that bullies can bring to their victims via social media. During the past few years, there has been a sharp rise in media reports regarding the use of social media to annoy, humiliate, intimidate, bully, and threaten others, with harmful consequences such as emotional distress, anxiety, depression and in some cases, suicidal tendencies. Therefore, it is imperative for researchers to investigate the phenomenon of social media cyberbullying.Thisstudy identifies public cyberbullying messages on Twitter and then specifically examines the diffusion of these cyberbullying messages through Twitters. Java programs were developed to gather Twitter cyberbullying messages using search API offered by Twitter and then these messages were analyzed in depth to understand how people retweet cyberbullying messages on Twitter