Facebook Is Linked To Surge In Attacks

ALTENA, Germany — When you ask locals why Dirk Denkhaus, a young firefighter trainee who had been considered neither dangerous nor political, broke into the attic of a refugee group house and tried to set it on fire, they will list the familiar issues.

This small riverside town is shrinking and its economy declining, they say, leaving young people bored and disillusioned. Though most here supported the mayor’s decision to accept an extra allotment of refugees, some found the influx disorienting. Fringe politics are on the rise.

But they’ll often mention another factor: Facebook.

Everyone here has seen Facebook rumors portraying refugees as a threat. They’ve encountered racist vitriol on local pages, a jarring contrast with Altena’s public spaces, where people wave warmly to refugee families.

Many here suspected, and prosecutors would later argue, that Mr. Denkhaus had isolated himself in an online world of fear and anger that helped lead him to violence.

This may be more than speculation. Altena exemplifies a phenomenon long suspected by researchers: that Facebook makes communities more prone to racial violence. And, now, the town is one of 3,000-plus data points in a study that claims to prove it.

Karsten Müller a nd Ca rlo Schwarz, researchers at the University of Warwick in England, scrutinized every anti- refugee attack in Germany, 3,335 in all, over a two-year span. One thing stuck out. Towns where Facebook use was higher than average, like Altena, reliably experienced more attacks on refugees. That held true in virtually any sort of community — big city or small town; affluent or struggling; liberal haven or far-right stronghold — suggesting that the link applies universally.

Their data converged on a breathtaking statistic: Wherever person