Refugees Welcome? Online Hate Speech and Sentiments in Twitter in Spain during the Reception of the Boat Aquarius

Carlos Arcila-Calderón,David Blanco-Herrero,Maximiliano Frías-Vázquez,Francisco Seoane-Pérez

doi:10.3390/su13052728

Carlos Arcila-Calderón, David Blanco-Herrero + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052728

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Abstract

High-profile events can trigger expressions of hate speech online, which in turn modifies attitudes and offline behavior towards stigmatized groups. This paper addresses the first path of this process using manual and computational methods to analyze the stream of Twitter messages in Spanish around the boat Aquarius (n = 24,254) before and after the announcement of the Spanish government to welcome the boat in June 2018, a milestone for asylum seekers acceptance in the EU and an event that was highly covered by media. It was observed that most of the messages were related to a few topics and had a generally positive sentiment, although a significant part of messages expressed rejection or hate—often supported by stereotypes and lies—towards refugees and migrants and towards politicians. These expressions grew after the announcement of hosting the boat, although the general sentiment of the messages became more positive. We discuss the theoretical, practical, and methodological implications of the study, and acknowledge limitations referred to the examined timeframe and to the preliminary condition of the conclusions.

Highlights

Since the Crisis of Refugees of the Mediterranean in 2015, Southern European countries have gained relevance in the reception of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants that either remain in them or continue to wealthier countries
This is an example of a high-profile real-life event that has led to a strong activity in social media, something that has been often studied in the academia, given that these events can act as drivers in the expression of either support or rejection, giving space for different forms of hate speech
With the goal of broadening the lens about who could become a victim of hateful expressions in social media and to discover what is the sentiment of the hateful messages aimed at each public, we present the following research question: To what extent is hate speech towards politicians present in the messages in Twitter in Spanish referring to the arrival of the boat Aquarius and how does the presence of hate speech relate with the predominant sentiment in those messages? (RQ3)

Summary

Introduction

Since the Crisis of Refugees of the Mediterranean in 2015, Southern European countries have gained relevance in the reception of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants that either remain in them or continue to wealthier countries. In just 1 week of that month, the case of Aquarius generated a large amount of interactions in Twitter (~24,000), making this social medium a unique space to monitor and analyze the public opinion towards refugees. This is an example of a high-profile real-life event that has led to a strong activity in social media, something that has been often studied in the academia, given that these events can act as drivers in the expression of either support or rejection, giving space for different forms of hate speech.

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