"Memes" as an Islamophobic Hate Speech Tool

Year 2022, Volume: 7 Issue: 15, 702 - 731, 31.05.2022

Yiğit Cem Eskicioğlu

https://doi.org/10.37679/trta.1101280

Cited By: 1

Abstract

This study examines online Islamophobic hate speech through 'internet memes', commonly known as 'caps' in Turkey, and the representation of Muslims in Islamophobic memes. Islamophobic memes were divided into themes and sub-themes through thematic analysis, which is a qualitative research method. Thus, the nature of the online representation of Islamophobic hate speech through memes has been tried to be explored. First, a category of content was created: memes with offensive text and harmless images, memes with harmless text and offensive images, and memes with both offensive text and offensive images, and secondly, by coding the content in the dataset, the themes of 'Violence,' 'Sexism,' 'Stereotyping,' and 'Dehumanization' were reached. These categorizations and themes were created according to the output obtained from the data. It is not a new phenomenon that the media and the far-right cast stereotypes on Muslims through ‘Terror’ and ‘Violence’. However, the dehumanizing approaches of Muslims by memes with offensive and dark humor show how far the dimension of Islamophobia can go in an environment where there is no mechanism to prevent any hateful behavior.

Keywords

Islamophobia, Online Hate Speech, Memes, Thematic Analysis, Islamophobic Representation of Muslims

İslamofobik Nefret Söylemi Aracı Olarak "Mem"ler

Abstract

Bu çalışmada çevrim içi nefretin en çok görüldüğü alanların başında gelen İslamofobik nefret söyleminin, uzun bir süredir dijital dünyadaki mizahı domine etmekte olan, Türkiye’de yaygın adıyla ‘caps’ olarak kullanılan ‘internet mem’leri aracılığıyla hangi türlerde gerçekleştiği ve Müslümanların, İslamofobik memlerdeki temsili ele alınmıştır. Nitel bir araştırma yöntemi olan tematik analiz yöntemiyle İslamofobik memler, tema ve alt temalara ayırılmış ve memler üzerinden İslamofobik nefret söyleminin çevrim içi mecradaki temsilinin doğası keşfedilmeye çalışılmıştır. İslamofobik içeriklerden oluşturulan veri setinden elde edilen çıktılara göre öncelikle ofansif metin ve zararsız görsel içeren memler, zararsız metin ve ofansif görsel içeren memler ve hem ofansif metin hem de ofansif görsel içeren memler olmak üzere içeriklerin bir kategorisi oluşturulmuş ve veri setindeki memlerin kodlanmasının ardından ortaya ‘Şiddet’, Cinsiyetçilik’, ‘Tek Tipleştirme’ ve ’İnsan dışılaştırma’dan oluşan ana temalar çıkartılmıştır. Medya ve aşırı sağ tarafından ‘Terör’ ve ‘Şiddet’ üzerinden Müslümanlara kalıp yargılar biçilmesi yeni bir olgu değildir. Ancak ofansif ve kara mizah ögeleri barındıran memlerin, Müslümanları insan dışılaştıran yaklaşımları İslamofobinin boyutunun herhangi bir nefret dolu davranışı engelleme mekanizmasının olmadığı bir ortamda nerelere varabileceğini göstermektedir.

Keywords

İslamofobi, Çevrimiçi Nefret Söylemi, Memler, Tematik Analiz, Müslümanların İslamofobik Temsili

References

• Aguilera-Carnerero, C. & Azeez, A. H. (2016). Islamonausea, not Islamophobia: The many faces of cyber hate speech. Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, 9(1), 21–40.
• Akbarzadeh, S. & Smith, B. (2005). The Representation of Islam and Muslims in the Media (The Age and Herald Newspapers). School of Political and Social Inquiry (Monash University).
• Albadi, N., Kurdi, M., & Mishra, S. (2018). Are they our brothers? Analysis and detection of religious hate speech in the Arabic Twittersphere. 2018 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM). https://doi.org/10.1109/asonam.2018.8508247
• Alğan, C. (2012). Nefret Suçları ile Mücadelede Sivil Toplum Örgütlerinin Rolü. İçinde Y. İnceoğlu (Ed.), Nefret Söylemi ve/veya Nefret Suçları, (ss.151-171). Ayrıntı Yayınları.
• Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
• Ataman, H. (2012). Nefret Suçlarını Farklı Yaklaşımlar Çerçevesinden Ele Almak: Etik, Sosyo-Politik ve Bir İnsan Hakları Problemi Olarak Nefret Suçları. İçinde Y. İnceoğlu (Ed.), Nefret Söylemi ve/veya Nefret Suçları, (ss.47-81). Ayrıntı Yayınları.
• Aydoğan, H. (2021). Hegel’in List der Vernunft Kavramının Stoacı Providentia ile Gözden Geçirilmesi, Hitit İlahiyat Dergisi, 20(1), 29-52
• Aydos, S. S. ve Aydos, O. S. (2019). Yeni Medyada Nefret Söylemi ve Nefret Söyleminden Doğan Hukukî Sorumluluk. Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi, 23(2), 3-35.
• Banks, J. (2010). Regulating hate speech online. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 24(3), 233-239. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2010.522323
• Barth, F. (2001). Etnik Gruplar ve Sınırları. (Çev. A. Kaya ve S. Gürkan). Bağlam Yayıncılık.
• Bezci, B. (2017). Avrupa’da Göç Politikaları, İslamofobi ve Aşırı Sağın Yükselişi. İçinde B. Bezci, S. Tauscher ve F. Topal (Ed.), Avrupa’da Göç ve İslamofobi, (ss. 1-18). Karınca Yayınevi.
• Bhabha, H. K. (2014). Kültürün İki Aradalığı. İçinde F. Mollaer (Ed.) Kimlik Politikaları: Tanınma, Özdeşlik ve Farklılık, (ss. 377-389). Doğu Batı Yayınları.
• Black, K. (2019). Business Statistics For Contemporary Decision-Making, Tenth Edition. Wiley.
• Bleich, E. (2011). What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is There? Theorizing and Measuring an Emerging Comparative Concept. American Behavioral Scientist, 55(12), 1581–1600. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764211409387
• Börzsei, K.L. (2013). Makes a Meme Instead: A Concise History of Internet Memes. http://works.bepress.com/linda_borzsei/2 adresinden alındı. (Erişim Tarihi: 25.02.2022).
• Braun V. ve Clarke V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual Res Psychol. 3(2), 77–101.
• Brown, A. (2018). What is so special about online (as compared to offline) hate speech? Ethnicities, 18(3), 297–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796817709846
• Buehler, A. F. (2011). Islamophobia: A Projection of the West’s ‘Dark Side. Islam and Civilisational Renewal, 24, 639-653.
• Castaño-Pulgarín, S.A., Suárez-Betancur, N., Vega, L.M.T., & López, H.M.H. (2021). Internet, social media and online hate speech. Systematic review, Aggression and Violent Behavior, (58). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2021.101608.
• Çapar, G. (2019). Kesişimsellik: Postmodern Feminist Bir Yaklaşım, Hukuk Kuramı, 6(3), 1-31.
• Dascălu Ș, ve Hristea F. (2022). Towards a Benchmarking System for Comparing Automatic Hate Speech Detection with an Intelligent Baseline Proposal. Mathematics. 10(6). https://doi.org/10.3390/math10060945
• Davison, P. (2012). The Language of Internet Memes. İçinde Michael Mandiberg (Ed.), The Social Media Reader, (ss. 53-58). New York University Press.
• DeCook, J. R. (2018). Memes and symbolic violence:# proudboys and the use of memes for propaganda and the construction of collective identity. Learning, Media and Technology, 43(4), 485-504.
• Drakett, J., Rickett, B., Day, K., & Milnes, K. (2018). Old jokes, new media – Online sexism and constructions of gender in Internet memes. Feminism & Psychology, 28(1), 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353517727560
• Easat-Daas, A. (2018). Islamophobia in Belgium: National Report 2017. İçinde E. Bayraklı ve F. Hafez (Eds.), European Islamophobia Report 2017. SETA.
• Eliav-Feldon, M., Isaac, B. & Ziegler, J. (2009). The Origins of Racism in the West. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Ersoy, U. (2018). Çağımızın Pandemisi: Nefret Suçları. Türkiye Adalet Akademisi Dergisi, (35), 111-174.
• Esses, V. M., Medianu, S. & Lawson, A.S. (2013). Uncertainty, Threat, and the Role of the Media in Promoting the of Immigrants and Refugees. Journal of Social Issues, 69, 518-536. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12027
• Froio, C. (2018). Race, religion, or culture? Framing Islam between racism and neoracism in the online network of the French far right. Perspectives on Politics, 16(3), 696–709. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592718001573
• Ghauri, M. J., & Umber, S. (2019). Exploring the Nature of Representation of Islam and Muslims in the Australian Press. SAGE Open, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019893696
• Gölcü, A. ve Çuhadar, M. (2017). Batı Toplumlarında İslamofobi’nin Üretilmesinde Medyanın Rolü. Ombudsman Akademik, (7), 71-99.
• Greene, V. S. (2019). “Deplorable” Satire: Alt-Right Memes, White Genocide Tweets, and Redpilling Normies, Studies in American Humor, 5(1), 31–69. https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.5.1.0031
• Hafez, F. (2014). Shifting borders: Islamophobia as common ground for building pan-European right-wing unity. Patterns of Prejudice, 48(5), 479-499. https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2014.965877
• Harel, T. O., Jameson, J. K., & Maoz, I. (2020). The Normalization of Hatred: Identity, Affective Polarization, and Dehumanization on Facebook in the Context of Intractable Political Conflict. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120913983
• Horsti, K. (2017). Digital Islamophobia: The Swedish woman as a figure of pure and dangerous whiteness. New Media & Society, 19(9), 1440–1457. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816642169
• Hotz, A. (2012, Eylül 17). Newsweek ‘Muslim rage’ cover invokes a rage of its own, The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/media/us-news-blog/2012/sep/17/muslim-rage-newsweek-magazine-twitter (Erişim Tarihi: 16.03.2022).
• InformedOpinions (2021). “Why did online hate increase during the pandemic.” https://informedopinions.org/why-did-online-hate-increase-during-the-pandemic/ (Erişim Tarihi: 10.01.2022).
• Kalkina, V. (2020). Between Humour and Public Commentary: Digital re-appropriation of the soviet propaganda posters as internet memes. Journal of Creative Communications, 15(2), 131-146.
• Karadağ, C. (2021, Nisan 5). Almanya’da internette işlenen nefret suçlarına hapis ceza sı getirildi, Anadolu Ajansı. https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/dunya/almanyada-internette-islenen-nefret-suclarina-hapis-cezasi-getirildi/2198804 (Erişim Tarihi: 16.03.2022).
• Kınık, H. ve İlter, E. (2019). Müslümanlara Yönelik Medya Algısı: İngiliz Yazılı Basını. Atatürk Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi, 33(3), 963-976.
• Kırık, A. M. ve Saltık, R. (2017). Sosyal Medyanın Dijital Mizahı: İnternet Meme/Caps. Atatürk İletişim Dergisi, (12), 99-118.
• Kiger, M.E. & Varpio, L. (2020). Thematic analysis of qualitative data: AMEE Guide No. 131, Medical Teacher, 42(8), 846-854. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2020.1755030
• Koç, Ç. T. (2018). Yeni Medyada İslamofobik Söylemin Üretimi: Facebook Örneği. Medya ve Din Araştırmaları Dergisi, 1(2), 211-242.
• Kreißel, P., Ebner, J., Urban, A., & Guhl, J. (2018). Hass auf Knopfdruck: Rechtsextreme Trollfabriken und das Ökosystem koordinierter Hasskampagnen im Netz London: ISD. https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ISD_Ich_Bin_Hier_2.pdf adresinden alındı. (Erişim Tarihi: 10.03.2022).
• Kteily, N., & Bruneau, E. (2017). Backlash: The Politics and Real-World Consequences of Minority Group Dehumanization. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(1), 87–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216675334
• Lingiardi, V., Carone, N., Semeraro, G., Musto, C., D’Amico, M. & Brena, S. (2020). Mapping Twitter hate speech towards social and sexual minorities: A lexicon-based approach to semantic content analysis. Behaviour & Information Technology, 39(7), 711-721.
• Luqiu, L.W. & Yang, F. (2018) Islamophobia in China: news coverage, stereotypes, and Chinese Muslims’ perceptions of themselves and Islam. Asian Journal of Communication, 28(6), 598-619.
• Mathew, B., Tharad, H., Rajgaria, S., Singha-nia, P., Maity, S. K., Goyal, P. & Mukherje, A. (2018). Thoushalt not hate: Countering online hate speech. https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.04409 adresinden alındı. (Erişim Tarihi: 15.02.2022).
• Mondal, M., Silva, L. A., Correa, D., & Benevenuto, F. (2018). Characterizing usage of explicit hate expressions in social media. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 24(2), 110–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614568.2018.1489001
• Nowell, L.S., Norris J.M., White D.E. & Moules N.J. (2017). Thematic analysis: striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. Int J Qual Methods, 16(1).
• Perry, B. (2014). Gendered Islamophobia: hate crime against Muslim women, Social Identities, 20(1), 74-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2013.864467
• Perry, B. (2001). In the name of hate: Understanding hate crimes. Routledge.
• Poole, E., Giraud, E. H., & de Quincey, E. (2021). Tactical interventions in online hate speech: The case of #stopIslam. New Media & Society, 23(6), 1415–1442. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820903319
• Saberon, S., Marilao, A.D., Marcellones, M.S., & Zabala, J.L. (2019). Meme Viability: Elements of Effective Political Internet Memes. Communication and Journalism Review, 1(1).
• Saleem, M., Prot, S., Anderson, C. A., & Lemieux, A. F. (2017). Exposure to Muslims in Media and Support for Public Policies Harming Muslims. Communication Research, 44(6), 841–869. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215619214
• Senarath, Y. & Purohit, H. (2020, Şubat). Evaluating semantic feature representations to efficiently detect hate intent on social media. In 2020 IEEE 14th International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC) (ss. 199-202). IEEE.
• Shifman, L. & Lemish, D. (2010). Between Femınısm and Fun(Ny)Mism. Information, Communication & Society, 13(6), 870-891. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180903490560
• Shifman, L. (2013). Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a Conceptual Troublemaker, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(3), 362–377. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12013
• Sides, J. & Gross, K. (2013). Stereotypes of Muslims and Support for the War on Terror. The Journal of Politics, 75(3), 583–598. https://dS0022381613000388
• Smolla, R. A. (1990). Academic Freedom, Hate Speech, and the Idea of a University. Law and Contemporary Problems, 53(3), 195-226.
• Sparkes-Vian, C. (2019). Digital Propaganda: The Tyranny of Ignorance. Critical Sociology, 45(3), 393–409. https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920517754241
• Standard Eurobarometer 92 (2019, Sonbahar) Public opinion in the European Union, First results. https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2255
• Statista (2021). Consequences of online hate and harassment according to internet users in the United States as of January 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/971876/societal-impact-of-online-hate-harassment-usa/#professional (Erişim Tarihi: 03.02.2022).
• Statista (2021). Global number of hate speech-containing content removed by Facebook from 4th quarter 2017 to 4th quarter 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1013804/facebook-hate-speech-content-deletion-quarter/ (Erişim Tarihi: 03.02.2022).
• Statista (2022). Number of data removal requests issued to Twitter from 1st half 2012 to 1st half 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/315147/total-number-of-requests-for-data-removal-twitter/ (Erişim Tarihi: 10.01.2022).
• Streissguth, T. (2009). Hate Crimes, Revised Edition. New York.
• Tauscher, S. (2021). Islamophobia in Germany: National Report 2020. İçinde E. Bayraklı ve F. Hafez (Eds.), European Islamophobia Report 2020, Viyana, Leopold Weiss Institute.
• Taylor, B. (2014). Another Darkness Another Dawn. London UK: Reaktion Books Ltd.
• Taylor, C. (2005). Çokkültürcülük: Tanınma Politikası. Hazırlayan: A. Gutmann. Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
• Tekten Aksürmeli, Z. S. (2017). Islamophobia and Surveillance Directed at Muslims in the West. İlahiyat Akademi, (6), 183-196.
• Thussu, D. K. (1997). How Media Manipulates Truth about Terrorism. Economic and Political Weekly, 32(6), 264–267.
• Ullmann, S. & Tomalin, M. (2020), Quarantining online hate speech: technical and ethical perspectives. Ethics Inf Technol (22), 69–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-019-09516-z
• UNESCO (2021). Addressing hate speech on social media: Contemporary challenges. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379177 (Erişim Tarihi: 20.02.2022).
• Vidgen, B. & Yasseri, T. (2020). Detecting weak and strong Islamophobic hate speech on social media, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 17(1), 66-78. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2019.1702607
• Vidgen, B., Yasseri, T. & Margetts, H. (2021). Islamophobes are not all the same! A study of far right actors on Twitter, Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, https://doi.org/10.1080/18335330.2021.1892166
• Wagner, K. (2021, Temmuz 14). Twitter Penalizes Record Number of Accounts for Posting Hate Speech, Time. https://time.com/6080324/twitter-hate-speech-penalties/
• Wakefield, J. (2022, Şubat 16). Twitter expands its crackdown on trolling and hate. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60403960 (Erişim Tarihi: 16.03.2022).
• Weber, A. (2009). Nefret Söylemi El Kitabı. (Çev. Metin Çulhaoğlu) Avrupa Konseyi.
• Whillock, R. K. (1995). The use of hate as a stratagem for achieving political and social goals. İçinde R. K. Whillock & D. Slayden (Eds.), Hate speech (ss. 28–54). Thousand Oaks, SAGE.
• Wodak, R. (2015). The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses. London: Sage.
• Yüksel, M. (2014). İslamofobinin Tarihsel Temellerine Bir Bakış: Oryantalizm Ya Da Batı ve Öteki. Journal Of Istanbul University Law Faculty, 72(1), 189-200.
• ZARA (2022). Rassismus Report. https://assets.zara.or.at/media/rassismusreport/ZA RA-Rassismus_Report_2021.pdf (Erişim Tarihi: 25.03.2022).
• Zimbardo, Z. (2014). Cultural Politics of Humor in (De)Normalizing Islamophobic Stereotypes, Islamophobia Studies Journal, 2(1), 59-81.