Tactical interventions in online hate speech: The case of #stopIslam

Elizabeth Poole,Eva Haifa Giraud,Ed De Quincey

doi:10.1177/1461444820903319

Abstract

This article sets out findings from a project focused on #stopIslam, a hashtag that gained prominence following the Brussels terror attack of 2016. We initially outline a big data analysis which shows how counter-narratives – criticizing #stopIslam – momentarily subverted negative news reporting of Muslims. The rest of the article details qualitative findings that complicate this initial positive picture. We set out key tactics engaged in by right-wing actors, self-identified Muslim users, would-be allies and celebrities and elucidate how these tactics were instrumental in the direction, dynamics and legacies of the hashtag. We argue that the tactical interventions of tightly bound networks of right-wing actors, as well as the structural constraints of the platform, not only undermined the longevity and coherence of the counter-narratives but subtly modulated the affordances of Twitter in ways that enabled these users to extend their voice outwards, reinforcing long-standing representational inequalities in the process.

Highlights

In the wake of the well-documented rise of populist right-wing politics in Europe and North America (Emcke, 2019; Kellner, 2016), there has been widespread concern about social media being used in ways that normalizes xenophobia (Evolvi, 2018; Feshami, 2018; Siapera, 2019) and propagates disinformation about minority groups (Farkas et al., 2017; Horsti, 2017)
We conceptualize the significance of tactics that were engaged in by different actors involved in circulating #stopIslam: a hashtag that initially trended on Twitter following the Brussels terror attacks of 2016
What was notable about #stopIslam is that the reason it trended on Twitter was not due to people using it to spread hate speech

Summary

Introduction

The article evaluates the efficacy of tactical attempts to contest #stopIslam, with a particular focus on the limitations of these tactics in light of well-organized opposition on the part of actors seeking to perpetuate its original anti-Islamic sentiment These findings are primarily based on qualitative data about who was engaging with #stopIslam, how the hashtag was being deployed and the dialogue that surrounded its deployment. Our focus here is on qualitative research, the data we are drawing on is derived from a larger mixed-methods project about key potentials and challenges facing online counter-narratives against racialized Islamophobic hate speech (see Poole et al, 2019) This big data study gathered and analysed all tweets using #stopIslam for 40 days following the Brussels terrorist attack (22 March 2016), using computational methods. What events surrounding #stopIslam elucidate, is that – in the context of commercial social media – though particular tactics might subtly modulate the affordances of social media, these shifts often work to intensify rather than unsettle existing representational inequalities

Literature review

Methods and sample

Findings

Conclusion