The bit that concerns me is that people are making an effort, with apparently institutional backing and attendant credentials, to make something that couldn't possibly be science look scientific.

Hate speech can not be quantified. Calling my friend a fag is not hate speech, while telling a stranger that they were definitely born inherently flawed and that god doesn't love them requirs no recognizable slur.

Also, they seem to assume a causal link between the closing of coontown and a reduction in hate speech, but the only comparison that matters is hatespeech rates in reddits other than coontown before and after its closing. But there wouldn't have been hate speech in other reddits, because other reddits are run by sjws and ban it.

I think a number of other things were narrow minded in their analyses, such as reddits unique market share obscuring the utility of their tactics for other forums.