Hate Speech in The Context of Digital Violence in Türkiye: Perceptions and Biases on Afghan Identity

Abstract

According to the data of the Presidency of Migration Management (2021), the largest group of irregular migrants detected in Turkey in 2021 are Afghans. The arrival of irregular migrants from Afghanistan to Turkey after the Syrian refugees have caused a reaction in society and from the opposition parties. Based on this reaction to the arrival of Afghan refugees, it can be claimed that it has the potential to become the new "other" category in Turkey. We identify two hashtags used on Twitter to protest the arrival of Afghans, which are #sınırnamustur and #hudutnamustur having the same meaning in Turkish and are Trend Topics on Twitter. The purpose of this study is to examine why there are two hashtags on Twitter to protest the arrival of Afghan immigrants, what the differences and similarities are between them, how Afghans are defined and what kinds of hate speech they are subject to. For this purpose, Craswell's mixed model is applied in this study using both content analysis and social network analysis techniques.