Sarcasm Beyond Hate Speech: Facebook Comments on Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Authors

  • Tirşe Erbaysal Filibeli Bahcesehir University
  • Can Ertuna Bahcesehir University

Keywords:

refugees, Turkey, social media, discourse analysis, hate speech, sarcasm, disinformation

Abstract

In Turkey, the widespread sharing of false information about refugees on social media is one of the main reasons behind the ever-increasing antirefugee sentiment. In this study, with a reference to critical discourse studies and by adopting a theoretical approach on indirect violence, 1,000 user comments made under the most viral false claims on Facebook about Syrian refugees during the election years of 2018–19 were analyzed. Together with comments that are classified under categories of hate speech and discriminative rhetoric, a significant number of sarcastic comments were also detected by critical discourse analysis. It is observed that sarcasm is instrumentalized to reproduce superiority over refugees as well as criticizing official policies. Such comments cannot simply be considered as “innocent jokes” and are indeed part of a vicious cycle of violence and function like hate speech and discriminatory rhetoric.  

Author Biographies

Tirşe Erbaysal Filibeli, Bahcesehir University

Lecturer, Media & Communication Studies, Bahcesehir University    2019Dr. Tirşe Erbaysal Filibeli works as an assistant professor at Bahçeşehir University, Communication Faculty, Department of New Media. She is co-editor of the book titled ‘Journalism Peacekeeping Agent at the Time of Conflict’ (2017) and editor of the book titled ‘Information Nightmare: Fake News, Manipulation and Post-Truth Politics in the Digital Age’ (2020). She works as the country coordinator and researcher in several EU and European Commission funded projects.  Her current research interests focus on the global digital information ecosystem and digital threats to democracy.

Can Ertuna, Bahcesehir University

Dr. Can Ertuna works as an assistant professor at Bahçeşehir University, Communication Faculty, Department of New Media, and as a freelance journalist. He has been working in the Turkish media for more than 20 years fulfilling different roles as writer, editor and correspondent. He has a book in Turkish called “Arab Uprisings Diary” (2014). His areas of interest are political economy of mass media, broadcast journalism and new media tools in storytelling.   

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Published

2021-04-29

Issue

Vol. 15 (2021)

Section

Articles

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