Online Hate Speech and the Representations of Refugees in #VatanimdaMülteci (#RefugeeinMyCountry)

Abstract

In Turkey, a dramatic event involving Syrian refugees happened because of allegations that Syrian men had harassed Turkish women. Following the case, Turkish citizens generated a popular hashtag of #VatanimdaMülteci (#RefugeeinMyCountry) to share negative opinions, feelings, and ideologies towards Syrian refugees. This study is an examination of how Twitter was used to produce and spread hate speech discourse directed at refugees and focus on the representations of refugees through the online environment to provide information about anti-refugee rhetoric for specific nations. A quantitative and qualitative content analysis was carried out of the tweets under the hashtag #VatanimdaMülteci. The results demonstrate that a significant number of tweets contained hate speech comments designed to criticise Turkish government policies regarding refugees, such as the Turkish citizenship provided to refugees and their ability to open businesses in Turkey. The study shows that the hospitality of Turkish citizens turned into hostility over time.