Hate Speech Typology of Selected Controversial Figures on Social Media: A Discourse-Analytic Perspective

This study is motivated by a well-noted hate speech phenomenon of Indonesian controversial figures who frequently used hate speech to criticize the Indonesian government as well as the former President Joko Widodo and his counterparts. This qualitative study used the discourse analytic perspective approach. It examines language in use, the set of norms, and preferences that relate language to its context. The data consisted of excerpts containing hate speech collected from selected YouTube videos. The data were analyzed using Miles and Huberman’s, interactive model. The results showed that emotions always run high during the elections. As a result, hate speech on social media has become routine in everyday life. As a conflictive speech act, hate speech tends to cause hostility and social disharmony. Haters are characterized by impulsiveness, irritability, and exaggeration of their sentiments; therefore, they appear to lose innocence when producing hate speech. Anger induces a tendency to harm others and hate speech is produced for this purpose. While social media empowers the freedom of expression, it also enables the proliferation of hate speech. Therefore, our work bears implications for educationists to make intervention efforts to tackle the damaging effects of online hate speech. They are obliged to become more aware of people’s media literacy to promote the ethical and responsible use of social media. Hate speech should be avoided since its exposure can shape bad attitudes and influence some actual negative behavior. It may condition the environment that unconsciously normalizes the expression of hate speech, causing the hearers to imitate the behavior.