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We present a four-factor framework in understanding who receives online abuse and why. The four factors are prominence, events, online engagement and personal characteristics. We collected 4.2 million tweets sent to or from election candidates in the six week period spanning from the start of November until shortly after the December 12th election. We found abuse in 4.46% of replies received by candidates, up from 3.27% in the matching period for the 2017 UK general election. Abuse levels have also been climbing month on month throughout 2019. Abuse also escalated throughout the campaign period. Abuse focused mainly on a small number of high profile politicians, with the most prominent individuals receiving not only more abuse by volume, but also as a percentage of replies. Abuse is \u201cspiky\u201d, triggered by external events such as debates, or certain tweets. Some tweets may become viral targets for personal abuse. On average, men received more general and political abuse; women received more sexist abuse. Conservative candidates received more political and general abuse. We find that individuals choosing not to stand for re-election had received more abuse across the preceding year.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1140\/epjds\/s13688-020-00236-9","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,2]],"date-time":"2020-07-02T08:30:58Z","timestamp":1593678658000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":50,"title":["Which politicians receive abuse? Four factors illuminated in the UK general election 2019"],"prefix":"10.1140","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8324-606X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Genevieve","family":"Gorrell","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3012-8713","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mehmet E.","family":"Bakir","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7296-5851","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ian","family":"Roberts","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2269-1722","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mark A.","family":"Greenwood","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6152-9600","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kalina","family":"Bontcheva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"236_CR1","unstructured":"Oppenheim M General election: women MPs standing down over \u2018horrific abuse\u2019, campaigners warn. https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/politics\/general-election-woman-mps-step-down-abuse-harassment-a9179906.html. 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All data used are in the public domain, and only public figures are identified by name in this work. Due to the sensitive nature of the data, it cannot be made public except in aggregate. Experimenter exposure to disturbing material is managed through short sessions. Readers are warned at the start of this work that they may find the language they encounter distressing.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"The authors declare that they have no competing interests.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"18"}}