Online Fake News, Hateful Posts Against Refugees, and a Surge in Xenophobia and Hate Crimes in Austria

Schäfer, Claudia; Schadauer, Andreas

doi:10.4324/9781351049634-13

Cited by 47 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…The predominance of social media and the new dimension of hate speech, thanks to them, has led to an increase in the regulation and legislation of hate speech online [28,29]. However, the popularity of online social media keeps generating new challenges, such as the spread of fake news [30], the use of disinformation for promoting rejection against refugees [31] or the increase in the presence of hate speech [32] despite all efforts. However, social media have also become relevant to gauge the public opinion of societies, including the presence of racism [33] or the representation of refugees [21].…”

Section: Refugees As a Subject In Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2021

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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.

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Section: Refugees As a Subject In Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2021

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“…Fake news related to COVID-19 cuts across different areas such as the origin of the virus, its cause and prevention and how to control its spread. Schäfer and Schadauer (2018) noted that fake news poses a serious threat to global well-being and global perspective as it has been used to promote disease outbreaks, hate, crime, racism and war. For instance, while some faceless individuals have linked the origin of the virus to a covert biological weapon program in Wuhan, there is no evidence to support this claim ( The Independent , 2020).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information literacy competence in curtailing fake news about the COVID-19 pandemic among undergraduates in Nigeria

Igbinovia

Okuonghae

Adebayo³

2020

RSR

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Purpose The continuous spread of the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has generated public health concern with avalanche of information accompanied by series of fake news. Thus, this study examined the effect of Information Literacy Competency (ILC) in curtailing the spread of fake news among Library and Information Science (LIS) undergraduates in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach Survey research design of the descriptive type was used to generate data from a group of LIS undergraduates online. The population of the study consisted of 138 LIS undergraduate students who participated in the survey (thus, n = 138). The data retrieved was subjected to descriptive analysis. Findings The study revealed that the students had high level of ILC (x ¯ = 3.42), and there was low prevalence level of COVID-19 pandemic fake news (x ¯ = 2.35) among them. The major causes of COVID-19 fake news were too much information in circulation concerning COVID-19 (x ¯ = 3.44) and the resultant inability to discern or spot fake news from verified and authentic news (x ¯ = 3.28). The study also revealed that ILC had a significant effect in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 fake news with a grand mean of 3.28 against the criterion mean of 2.5. It is implied that LIS undergraduates are educationally position to acquire ILC which is crucial to their identification of fake news and helps to curtail its spread. Research limitations/implications The study is limited in its use of online group for data elicitation within a limited period of three weeks. Also, in its adoption of self-evaluation scale to measure ILC instead of standard information literacy test. Also, the high chances of social desirability bias in sections C and E serve as a limitation to the study. Practical implications The study reinforces the need to enhance structures that flags fake news on social media platforms and integrating IL into schools’ curriculum at all levels. Originality/value This study seeks to pioneer a new area of focus on the relevance of ILC to different global issues that concern the health and well-being.

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“…Wirathu routinely posts fake and highly contentious anti‐Rohingya content to incite violence against the community. Elsewhere, Schäfer and Schadauer’s (2018) research sheds light on how false narratives have statistically led to an increase in cyber hate against refugees and migrants in Austria. Scholars focused on studying the ability of misinformation to influence and sway public perceptions point to an environment of increasing agnotology, wilful ignorance and political polarisation (Croissant, 2014; Perl et al, 2018), whereby different groups unite behind their preferred politicians who espouse populist yet factually dubious narratives (Shane, 2017).…”

Section: The Contemporary Phenomenon Of Fake Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The International Discourses and Governance of Fake News

Neo

2021

Global Policy

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Since the 2016 US presidential elections, fake news and misinformation have been recognised as a major problem of the modern, connected world. However, this increased salience has been accompanied by an expansion in voices articulating different approaches towards the issue. This article presents an examination of the range of societal discourses of fake news advanced by four types of hegemonic societal actors: international organisations, states, civil society and large business interests, focusing on the following. First, how do existing discourses conceive of the nature of fake news and the societal objects it threatens? Next, what are the solutions proposed? Through an analysis of policy interventions and texts, this article presents a taxonomy of the current most salient understandings of fake news, showing that present conceptualisations of the issue can be categorised into three competing discourses: discourses constructing fake news as an existential threat, a political problem or a minor issue. The analysis highlights important variations in how different regimes conceptualise fake news, revealing how authoritarian governments have sought to construct fake news as a security threat in order to justify constraints on free speech. On the flipside, leaving fake news completely unregulated leads to conflict‐of‐interest issues and an accountability gulf implicating ‘Big Tech’. This article calls for more analytical focus on the discourses of fake news, which constitutes a significant but under‐examined factor in comprehending the long‐term consequences of the problem of fake news.

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Online Fake News, Hateful Posts Against Refugees, and a Surge in Xenophobia and Hate Crimes in Austria

Cited by 47 publications

References 0 publications

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

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

Information literacy competence in curtailing fake news about the COVID-19 pandemic among undergraduates in Nigeria

The International Discourses and Governance of Fake News

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