Coronavirus exacerbates xenophobia: Consciousness of Twitter posting during the pandemic

ABSTRACT

Free speech is not a license for racists to spread propaganda. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 and its subsequent spread across the globe has left a shocking wave of disbelief resulting in an upsurge of xenophobia in the society. Racism is a system of dominance and power designed to uphold the racially privileged. This study delves into the consciousness of Twitter postings during the COVID-19 pandemic and deconstructs the power dynamics in the hashtags used. The study's data was analysed using Twitter Application Programming Interface (API) to identify the representation within tweet sample sets. The study concludes that social interactions on Twitter constructs power dynamics and these shared values create a new form of power resistance and subjugated knowledge. This leads to a discussion of power between social media intertwined with the machine learning tools in social science and humanities studies. This study contributes to the academic debates about the public sphere and social media's role in constructing meaning in cultural and social change. It also suggests that Twitter develops policies to prohibit hate speech and impose regulations to ensure that online spaces remain civil, safe, and democratic.