WITNESS Media Lab has issued a report called Capturing Hate, analyzing videos displaying anti-transgender violence and the people who view them for "entertainment."

WITNESS studied videos shared at sites like YouTube, WorldsStarHipHop, LiveLeak, and Flyheight by searching the terms "tranny fight" and stud fight" and found 329 videos. Those videos had over 89 million views, over 600K shares, over 554K likes, and over 230K comments.

Of the 209 YouTube videos depicting anti-trans violence, 39% were categorized as entertainment. While WorldStarHipHop hosted only 47 of the videos, they had 63 million of the views anf 530K of the likes. Neither platform responded to requests for comment.

WITNESS also analyzed how viewers engaged with the videos by culling comments into word clouds. In each visualization, besides use of the slur "tranny," one of the largest visible sentiments is "lol."

Because, you know, nothing elicits laughter like seeing a tranny pounded to the ground.

A typical comment from WSHH:

LMFAO what did IT expect coming over there talking smack and trying to push IT's lifestyle on normal people they should have all took turns shoving large objects up IT's vag and butt.

We've seen reports coming out of the Anti-Violence Project and the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs calling the murder rate against trans women of color an epidemic. But the story hadn't been told about how horrifying it is to walk while trans.

--Karen Stephenson, lead researcher

The Anti-Violence Project releases an annual report that documents hate violence against the LGBTQ community. However, there is still no national database that specifically reports violence against transgender people. The U.S. Census Bureau does not track statistics about transgender people. Additionally, the number of hate crimes reported by the FBI is often undercounted, because the FBI relies on data shared voluntarily from individual law enforcement agencies.

Stevenson also gave a few tips to bystanders who wish to capture video as evidence of the epidemic: Protect the identity of the person who is experiencing the attack, and don't upload the video as "entertainment."

Video is the most impactful way to tell the story. I think it's important, in an ethical and sensitive way, to show people that this is out there. Until these communities are not in danger anymore, yes, please capture and share and learn how to use these videos ethically.

--Stevenson