[Paper Review] "23andMe confirms: I'm super white" -- Analyzing Twitter Discourse On Genetic Testing

Alexandros Mittos, Jeremy Blackburn+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jan 30, 2018

Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection8 citations

TL;DR

This study analyzes 302,000 Twitter tweets over 2.5 years to examine public discourse on direct-to-consumer genetic testing, focusing on 23andMe and AncestryDNA. Using keyword-based crawling, sentiment analysis, and image-based detection of ancestry test screenshots, it reveals that users—especially those with tech and health interests—actively share results, often with racialized pride (e.g., 'I'm super white'), while also exposing concerns about privacy and the rise of racially motivated discourse.

ABSTRACT

Recent progress in genomics is bringing genetic testing to the masses. Participatory public initiatives are underway to sequence the genome of millions of volunteers, and a new market is booming with a number of companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA offering affordable tests directly to consumers. Consequently, news, experiences, and views on genetic testing are increasingly shared and discussed online and on social networks like Twitter. In this paper, we present a large-scale analysis of Twitter discourse on genetic testing. We collect 302K tweets from 113K users, posted over 2.5 years, by using thirteen keywords related to genetic testing companies and public initiatives as search keywords. We study both the tweets and the users posting them along several axes, aiming to understand who tweets about genetic testing, what they talk about, and how they use Twitter for that. Among other things, we find that tweets about genetic testing originate from accounts that overall appear to be interested in digital health and technology. Also, marketing efforts as well as announcements, such as the FDA's suspension of 23andMe's health reports, influence the type and the nature of user engagement.Finally, we report on users who share screenshots of their results, and raise a few ethical and societal questions as we find evidence of groups associating genetic testing to racist ideologies.

Motivation & Objective

• Understand the nature and drivers of public discourse on direct-to-consumer genetic testing on Twitter.
• Identify key user groups involved in genetic testing conversations and assess their motivations and interests.
• Examine the role of major companies (23andMe, AncestryDNA) and public initiatives in shaping online discourse.
• Investigate the ethical implications of genetic testing sharing, including privacy risks and the emergence of racially charged narratives.
• Quantify user engagement patterns, sentiment, and the prevalence of screenshot sharing of genetic test results.

Proposed method

• Collected 302,000 tweets using 13 keywords related to genetic testing companies and genomics initiatives between January 2015 and July 2017.
• Performed sentiment analysis on tweets to assess overall tone and identify negative sentiment clusters.
• Used perceptual hashing (pHash) with a threshold of 17 to detect images resembling ancestry test result screenshots.
• Manually validated 366 and 204 candidate images for 23andMe and AncestryDNA, respectively, removing 16% and 13% false positives.
• Analyzed user profiles and 1,000 most recent tweets of users who shared screenshots to infer interests and behavioral patterns.
• Conducted case studies on 23andMe and AncestryDNA to compare engagement, sentiment, and content themes.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the primary topics and themes discussed in public discourse about genetic testing on Twitter?
• RQ2 Which user groups are most active in discussing genetic testing, and what are their interests and motivations?
• RQ3 How do corporate announcements (e.g., FDA suspension of 23andMe) and media coverage affect user engagement and sentiment?
• RQ4 To what extent are users sharing screenshots of their genetic test results, and what are the implications for privacy and identity?
• RQ5 Are there detectable patterns of racially motivated or ideologically charged discourse in genetic testing-related tweets?

Key findings

• Users tweeting about genetic testing are predominantly interested in digital health and technology, with a significant presence of journalists, medical professionals, and entrepreneurs.
• Despite having half the customer base, 23andMe generated nearly five times more tweets than AncestryDNA, largely due to controversy over FDA approval in 2015.
• Approximately 0.23% of 23andMe tweets and 0.60% of AncestryDNA tweets contained ancestry test result screenshots, with 3.40% and 5.15% of tweets with images being screenshots, respectively.
• About 10% of tweets with screenshots included the word 'white,' reflecting a trend of racialized self-identification, such as in the viral phrase '23andMe confirms: I’m super white.'
• The hashtag #maga appeared in 431 tweets from users posting 23andMe results, indicating a link between genetic testing and politically charged identities.
• A small but notable number of users expressed privacy concerns, and the study identified evidence of users associating genetic testing with racist ideologies, raising ethical red flags.