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Hate Speech in a Telegram Conspiracy Channel During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
journal contribution
posted on 2023-02-03, 01:20 authored by Matteo VerganiMatteo Vergani, A Martinez Arranz, R Scrivens, Liliana OrellanaLiliana OrellanaResearch has explored how the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a wave of conspiratorial thinking and online hate speech, but little is empirically known about how different phases of the pandemic are associated with hate speech against adversaries identified by online conspiracy communities. This study addresses this gap by combining observational methods with exploratory automated text analysis of content from an Italian-themed conspiracy channel on Telegram during the first year of the pandemic. We found that, before the first lockdown in early 2020, the primary target of hate was China, which was blamed for a new bioweapon. Yet over the course of 2020 and particularly after the beginning of the second lockdown, the primary targets became journalists and healthcare workers, who were blamed for exaggerating the threat of COVID-19. This study advances our understanding of the association between hate speech and a complex and protracted event like the COVID-19 pandemic, and it suggests that country-specific responses to the virus (e.g., lockdowns and re-openings) are associated with online hate speech against different adversaries depending on the social and political context.
History
Journal
Social Media and SocietyVolume
8Pagination
1-14Location
London, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
2056-3051eISSN
2056-3051Language
enPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalIssue
4Publisher
SAGE PublicationsUsage metrics
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Keywords
anti-doctors hateanti-journalist hateautomated text classificationconspiracy theoryCOVID-19online hate speechpandemicSinophobiaTelegramtopic modelingFilm, Television and Digital Media not elsewhere classifiedCommunication and Media Studies not elsewhere classifiedCultural Studies not elsewhere classified
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