Redrawing the 'Color Line': Examining Racial Segregation in Associative Networks on Twitter

Online social spaces are increasingly salient contexts for associative tie formation. However, the racial composition of associative networks within most of these spaces has yet to be examined. In this paper, we use data from the social media platform Twitter to examine racial segregation patterns in online associative networks. Acknowledging past work on the role that social structure and agency play in influencing the racial composition of individuals' networks, we argue that Twitter blurs the influence of these forces and may invite users to generate networks that are both more or less segregated than what has been observed offline, depending on use. While we expect to find some level of racial segregation within this space, this paper unpacks the extent to which we observe same-race connectedness for black and white users, assesses whether these patterns are likely generated by opportunity or by choice, and contextualizes results by comparing them with patterns of same-race connectedness observed offline.