Studying and Fighting Hate Speech

Turk-Kurd Hate Speech

An example of a hate speech via social media, especially Twitter, came after the earthquake in Van, a city in eastern Turkey and most of its Kurdish population, on October 23, 2011(Arslan, 2015). The devastating hate messages on Twitter were the consequences of national speeches published by the traditional media and racist social movements against the Kurdish people. This trend reached its peak after conflicts took place in southeastern Turkey a few days before the earthquake, killing 24 Turkish soldiers. As a result of the war between the Turkish army and the PKK10, the dead soldiers' news has been published almost every day since 1984 on the mainstream media, which people have become accustomed to in Turkey and have become an integral part of daily life in Turkey. The result has been the strengthening of the nationalism of feelings and actions and the promotion of radical extremists / racist movements. It is, therefore, possible to assume that the mass media in Turkey has a significant role in "reducing the intensity of local ethnic war", namely, defining state authorities and contributing to the building of official national memory. However, the spread of hate speech via Twitter after the Van earthquake requires further careful study where the senders of the tweets are not racial groups, but ordinary people linked to a natural disaster with a battle in the east of the country. The spammers saw the earthquake as a divine warning or retaliation for the deceased soldiers and thus formed a so-called hate speech. Thus, digital humanities can help tackle hate speech by collecting data and train a computer to analyse tweet's sources. However, to what extent does this helpful? This the question as no matter how technology could play a role in minimising the quantity of hate speech, other authorities would not be satisfied to have such a peaceful environment as they cannot rule without having a conflict on social media which generates by hate speech. Thus, this not in favour of authorities and they will make the same effort to create a conflict so they can lead.