Empowering Deplorables: The Amplification of Online Harassment During the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election Season

• In Event: Malicious Scripts: Investigating Online Harassment and Networked Abuse

Abstract

This paper explores a range of identity antagonisms that emerged online during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election season. Many of these antagonisms were spearheaded by the so-called alt-right, a group of digitally prolific white nationalist Trump supporters prominent on sites like Twitter, 4chan, and Reddit. The targeted racist harassment of American actress Leslie Jones, white supremacist rebranding of the popular cartoon frog meme Pepe, and #Repealthe19th, a hashtag advocating the disenfranchisement of female voters, provide conspicuous exemplars.

Although these behaviors are unquestionably antagonistic, participants often dismissed the seriousness of their expressions, arguing that it is “just the internet” and that they are “just trolling.” However, in the face of the longstanding internet axiom known as Poe’s Law--which states that online, genuine extremism is often indistinguishable from satirical extremism--this argument breaks down. When considering the effect of bigoted messages online, there is little reason to evaluate “ironic” bigotry on different terms than “sincere” bigotry. Bigotry is bigotry, regardless of a given poster’s motivations.

Amplifying the dangers of online harassment, bigotry is not confined to harassers themselves. Rather, antagonists’ messages also spread through the actions of journalists and average citizens alike. Even when these participants are sharing racist discourse and imagery in order to condemn racist discourse and imagery, participation in unfolding harassment narratives helps ensure that bigoted messages spread much further than they would have otherwise. As a result, addressing online bigotry can be as fraught as not addressing online bigotry; both can result, ironically, in more, or at least more normalized, bigoted expression.

Authors

• Ryan Milner, College of Charleston

• Whitney Phillips, Mercer U