  FixMyStreet (FMS) is a web-based civic participation platform that allows
inhabitants to report environmental defects like potholes and damaged pavements
to the government. In this paper, we examine the use of FMS in Brussels, the
capital city of Belgium. Analyzing a total of 30,041 reports since its
inception in 2013, we demonstrate how civic participation on FMS varies between
the ethnically diverse districts in Brussels. We compare FMS use to a range of
sociodemographic indicators derived from official city statistics as well as
geotagged social media data from Twitter. Our statistical analysis revealed
several significant differences between the districts that suggested that
crowdsourced civic participation platforms tend to marginalize low-income and
ethnically diverse communities. In this respect, our findings provide timely
evidence to inform the design of more inclusive crowdsourced, civic
participation platforms in the future.
