scholarly journals Morally Homogeneous Networks and Radicalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062110593
Author(s):  
Mohammad Atari ◽  
Aida Mostafazadeh Davani ◽  
Drew Kogon ◽  
Brendan Kennedy ◽  
Nripsuta Ani Saxena ◽  
...  

Online radicalization is among the most vexing challenges the world faces today. Here, we demonstrate that homogeneity in moral concerns results in increased levels of radical intentions. In Study 1, we find that in Gab—a right-wing extremist network—the degree of moral convergence within a cluster predicts the number of hate-speech messages members post. In Study 2, we replicate this observation in another extremist network, Incels. In Studies 3 to 5 ( N = 1,431), we demonstrate that experimentally leading people to believe that others in their hypothetical or real group share their moral views increases their radical intentions as well as willingness to fight and die for the group. Our findings highlight the role of moral convergence in radicalization, emphasizing the need for diversity of moral worldviews within social networks.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Atari ◽  
Aida Mostafazadeh Davani ◽  
Drew Kogon ◽  
Brendan Kennedy ◽  
Nripsuta Ani Saxena ◽  
...  

Online radicalization is among the most vexing challenges the world faces today. Here, we demonstrate that homogeneity in moral concerns results in increased levels of radical intentions. In Study 1, we find that in Gab – a right-wing extremist network – the degree of moral convergence within a cluster, predicts the number of hate-speech messages members post. In Study 2, we replicate this effect in another extremist network; Incels. In Study 3 (N = 333), we demonstrate that experimentally leading people to believe that others in their group share their moral views increases their radical intentions. Study 4 (N = 510) replicates this effect in a stratified representative sample, and finds that this causal link may be explained by the degree to which individuals’ identities are fused with their ingroup. Our findings highlight the role of moral convergence and identity fusion in radicalization, emphasizing the need for diversity of moral worldviews within social networks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-276
Author(s):  
Prashanth Bhat

Widespread dissemination of hate speech on corporate social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube has necessitated technological companies to moderate content on their platforms. At the receiving end of these content moderation efforts are supporters of right-wing populist parties, who have gained notoriety for harassing journalists, spreading disinformation, and vilifying liberal activists. In recent months, several prominent right-wing figures across the world were removed from social media - a phenomenon also known as ‘deplatforming’- for violating platform policies. Prominent among such right-wing groups are online supporters of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India, who have begun accusing corporate social media of pursuing a ‘liberal agenda’ and ‘curtailing free speech.’ In response to deplatforming, the BJP-led Government of India has aggressively promoted and embraced Koo, an indigenously developed social media platform. This commentary examines the implications of this alternative social platform for the online communicative environment in the Indian public sphere.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-86
Author(s):  
Samia Bouguerra

The development of the world today in information and communication technologies has affected all aspects of the economic life of the countries, especially with the emergence of the Internet and the new media through social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. With the emergence of social networks on the Internet, the marketing of services, especially tourism services, depends on the human factor itself through the exchange and exchange of information about tourist areas, traditional products, hotels and others. The new era has begun to depend on the consumers themselves and their contribution to the promotion of services and places... With the rapid development of social networks, especially Facebook, the importance of harnessing these sites to serve the tourism industry in the countries of the world in general and Algeria in particular, where the industry depends largely on the views of consumers and the spread of information among them, which opened a wide door to identify the places of tourism and hotels and offer services from By visiting people and benefiting from their services, which positively affects other users who may one day be tourists in the same areas. Therefore, this study is an attempt to highlight the role of social networks and their contribution to the activation of tourism in general and local tourism in particular, taking the Facebook network model, through the analysis of the Facebook page beaches of Annaba, and answer the following fundamental question:To what extent does Facebook contribute to the activation of local tourism in Algeria? JEL Classification: Z3, M3.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Katarina Damcevic ◽  
Filip Rodik

The article analyzes nationalistically motivated online hate speech on selected right-wing public Facebook pages in Croatia. The rise of historical revisionism and populism paved the way for the growing presence of hate speech, with the most salient example being the resurfacing of the World War II fascist salute Za dom spremni (“Ready for the Homeland”) across different communicative situations. We account for the online dynamic of Za dom spremni as well as for the most frequent expressions of xenophobia that accompany the salute by presenting data gathered between 2012 – 2017 using Facebook Graph API. From the total of 4.5 million postings published by readers, those containing Za dom spremni and its variations were filtered and followed by the frequency and prevalence of the accompanying notions. By relying on cultural semiotics, we highlight the socio-communicative functions of hate speech on two levels. Firstly, the notion of the semiosphere helps us illustrate how hate speech is used to reproduce the idea of Croatianness as the dominant self-description. Secondly, we examine how the dominant self-description maintains the boundary between us and the other by merging diverse textual fragments and how their perseverance depends on the communicative situations they enter online.


2020 ◽  
pp. 126-131
Author(s):  
M.A. Mehdieva ◽  

Examines is the role of social networks in development of lifestyle, as a socio-cultural aspect of modern large urban agglomerations. Communicative meaning of social networks, historical nature of their formation, on the basis of continuity of social forms of life and historical periods of social development are emphasized. The place of social networks in formation of certain spheres of lifestyle is determined. This is associated with formativeness of social networks and possibility of using them in activities that is reflected in people’s behavior, their social activity, attitude to life, etc. It is concluded that in each sphere of life there is a wide variety of already created social networks that are constantly being improved and modified. It is noted, that over time the role of social networks in development of urban lifestyles is growing that will ultimately lead to leveling of urban and rural lifestyles, since starting conditions for residents of any territorial entity with development of Internet become in principle approximately the same. The world is becoming one large space, united by a wide infrastructure of connections, in which social networks will become the leading party.


The article considers the features of urging hashtags that functioned in Facebook and Twitter social networks during the Euromaidan. The role of hashtags in times of revolutions has been identified, and it has been noted that hashtags help uncensored revolutionaries to disseminate information among their compatriots and the world community, attract the attention of the world media, and encourage people to support and join them. The paper considers syntactic features of urging hashtags, it is indicated that in the vast majority of cases such hashtags are located at the end of the post, although some may be located in the middle of the post. In addition the paper mentions publications consisting of some hashtags, among which are urging hashtags. Studying urging hashtags as sentences, the author singled out the following types: simple and complex, two-syllable and one-syllable, common and uncommon, complete and incomplete, complicated and non-complicated. Moreover, it has been noted that urging hashtags have a motivating modality. In regards of the peculiarities of the graphics of urging hashtags, the author points out the difference in spelling of the same words to create a different visual effect. Due to the fact that the hashtags use no spaces, the addressers wrote the sentence in one word, and in order to visually separate the words, the beginning of a word was capitalized or words were hyphenated. In addition, attention is drawn to punctuation and apostrophes: authors did not use those in the posts, because they „break” the words, after which the statement ceases to be the one single hashtag. In order to spread urging hashtags not only in the Ukrainian-speaking space, but also among the world audience, the addressers published urging hashtags in both Ukrainian and English, while the use of urging hashtags in Ukrainian remains more frequent.


Author(s):  
Daniel Muñoz-Sastre ◽  
Luis Rodrigo-Martín ◽  
Isabel Rodrigo-Martín

The COVID-19 pandemic has far-reaching consequences in various fields. In addition to its health and economic impact, there are also social, cultural and informational impacts. Regarding the latter, the World Health Organization (WHO) flagged concerns about the infodemic at the beginning of 2020. The main objective of this paper is to explore how the WHO uses its Twitter profile to inform the population on vaccines against the coronavirus, thus preventing or mitigating misleading or false information both in the media and on social networks. This study analyzed 849 vaccine-related tweets posted by the WHO on its Twitter account from 9 November 2020 (when the 73rd World Health Assembly resumed) to 14 March 2021 (three months after the start of vaccination). In order to understand the data collected, these results were compared with the actions carried out by the WHO and with the information and debates throughout this period. The analysis shows that the WHO is decidedly committed to the use of these tools as a means to disseminate messages that provide the population with accurate and scientific information, as well as to combat mis- and disinformation about the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination process.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Donata Tania Vergura ◽  
Beatrice Luceri ◽  
Cristina Zerbini

Online social networks have become one of the most widely used sources of information in the world and also an important part of our daily life. A huge boost to their spreading came with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As social distancing and lockdown orders due to COVID-19 health emergency grew more pervasive, individuals began to spend more time online and to use social networks (SNs) to keep up to date regarding the spread of pandemic and also to maintain communication with friends and family and reduce isolation. Given these evidences, the present study aims to investigate the social supporting role of SNs during the pandemic emergency. Specifically, it intends to analyze (a) the use of SNs as a means of interaction in the face of the social containment imposed by the COVID-19 spreading, and (b) the factors (homophily, trust, loneliness, and emotional instability) that affect such use. An online survey with a sample of 194 Italian people was conducted. Structural equation modelling was used to estimate the model proposed. Results revealed that sense of belonging to SNs had a strong impact on search for social support and is, in turn, positively influenced by trust in SNs and homophily. Emotional instability also increased the search for social support. The study contributes both theoretically and empirically to the understanding of the role of SNs in influencing individual behavior. As the use of SNs continues to spread around the world, understanding why consumers rely in SNs and what gratifications they receive from them is undoubtedly of interest for both academics and practitioners.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Humphreys

This article explores the future research opportunities and challenges of mobile social media. First, I problematize what constitutes the boundaries of mobile social media. Distinctions between location-based mobile social networks and non-location-based mobile social networks are established to suggest that the mobility of social media is in fact much broader than location alone. Second, several key theoretical questions are identified for future exploration, including micro, meso, and macro-level theories. Lastly, methodological challenges and opportunities are reflected upon and culminate in the call for multi-disciplinary programs of research to fully understand the role of mobile social media in the world today.


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