New research has found that far-right narratives dominated Twitter during the Mediterranean refugee crisis.
Researchers at DCU analysed more than 7.5 million tweets on the issue posted between October 2015 and May 2016.
They found tweets were being dominated by a relatively small number of accounts with large numbers of followers posting anti-refugee sentiment.
They said far-right groups were able to use the platform to create powerful anti-refugee sentiment during a key period of the refugee crisis.
'Polarised debate'
Lead researcher Dr Eugenia Siapera says social media platforms are being used to attack the vulnerable, and polarise debate.
“What we found we found was that the talk about refugees was immediately associated with terrorism because of what happened in Paris,” she said.
“We could see [...] the accounts which were the main accounts on Twitter talking about the subject.
“We found that the agenda was very much dominated by US political figures and media commentators.”
Dr Eugenia Siapera. Lead researcher at DCU
Fear
She said the crisis was often framed under hashtags about safety and security with tags like “#terrorists” or “#rapefugees” featuring prominently.
It also found that the stories and experiences of those most severely impacted by the crisis failed to gather any attention with users “submerged under a hierarchy of powerful elites on the social media platform.”
Dr Siapera said the key account uncovered by the research was that of Donald Trump – “a good year before he got elected and long before he received the nomination.”
“He might have only Tweeted one line or two but people were tagging him; people were involving him in the debate,” she said.
“The reason for that is they wanted to bring all his followers and the ideology he represents into the debate.”
"Story of the powerful"
The research found that mainstream media often painted an “overly negative narrative about the refugee issue” and that “Twitter took its cue from mainstream media.”
It notes that the media can often tell the “story of the powerful” and while it was once hoped that social media would offer an opportunity for a wider participation views, the study suggests this is not the case.
