Islamophobic hate speech on social networks. An analysis of attitudes to Islamophobia on Twitter

Abstract

This research aims to study Islamophobic hate speech in Spain by analysing messages on the Twitter social network. The manner in which we currently communicate has shifted towards digital communication, which provides scope for disinformation and fake news. Moreover, all this feeds back into the post-truth communicative approach, where emotions take precedence over verified facts. Migration and, specifically, Islamophobia, have increased due to specific events, such as jihadist attacks in Europe, and by other more systemic events, such as unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents on social networks. The methodology followed here is a content analysis through Twitter messages from 2012 to 2021. More than 7,000 tweets referring to Islamophobic hashtags were analysed and coded -intercoded- considering the variables related to the subject. Subsequently, a univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical analysis was performed. The results show the existence of an Islamophobic hate discourse in Spain, differentiated into different Islamophobic positions. Discussion: There are three profiles in Spanish society in relation to Islamophobia: the ambivalent, the non-Islamophobic and the Islamophobic. The main conclusions show the existence of a hate discourse centred on Islamophobia, in which three profiles of attitudes towards Islamophobia are differentiated: favourable, opposed, and ambivalent.