Xenophobia and Hate Speech towards Refugees on Social Media: Reinforcing Causes, Negative Effects, Defense and Response Mechanisms against That Speech

This study aims to recognize the possible role of social media in forming xenophobia and hate speech against Syrian refugees and to understand the reinforcing causes and negative effects of that speech on the refugees, as well as the refugees’ response mechanisms against that speech. A mixed approach was used in this study. In addition to a questionnaire tool that was used to collect data, focus group discussions were conducted to support the obtained data. The study used a statistically representative sample of Syrian refugees who live in Turkey and Jordan. The participants see the negative representation of their image via social media as leading to hatred towards them. The findings showed that there are some causes that reinforce xenophobic speech, such as otherization and demonization of refugees, by the negative representation and spreading of fake news on social media, which are published continuously. Moreover, gatekeepers have a role in promoting negative representation by approving xenophobic speech transmission without filtering or ethical control. The results also showed that the negative representation containing hate speech contributes to more negative effects on the refugees, such as psychological effects, as a sense of hatred towards refugees is created in the host country, and the effect of changing the feelings of the public from empathy to compassion fatigue concluding to hatred towards those refugees. Furthermore, the results showed that the Syrian refugees follow different defense mechanisms against xenophobia and hate speech against them published and circulated through social media platforms. The participants were divided into two main categories; the first one is those who prefer replying, not being silent, and defending the refugees, and the second category is those who prefer keeping silent. The first category of refugees stated that they do not accept keeping silent and they prefer to reply using logical, emotional, or defensive and offensive ways to bad comments against Syrian refugees in general. While the second category claimed that either they do not have time to reply or they sometimes agree that it was only a reaction to the behavior of some individual refugees. Some of them explained that they are afraid of being subjected to more bad comments and negative reactions against them. When they encounter aggressive comments and see that such views represent the majority, they prefer to keep silent to avoid being attacked. This is understood within the framework of the spiral of silence theory, where refugees hide their opinions, views, and preferences when they think that they fall within a minority group. They fear social isolation through social media.