Three waves of hate speech spreading faster than the pandemic in Malaysia: an analyses of outgroup populist narratives and hate speech during the COVID-19

Societal responses in disquietude circumstances during the corona virus (COVID-19) has been diverse, choosing to express themselves by engaging in online hate speech depending on the locality and pre-existing state of affairs of individual nation states. This exercise argues that there were th...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kevin Fernandez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17047/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17047/1/44470-143367-1-PB.pdf
_version_ 1848814213291573248
author Kevin Fernandez,
author_facet Kevin Fernandez,
author_sort Kevin Fernandez,
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Societal responses in disquietude circumstances during the corona virus (COVID-19) has been diverse, choosing to express themselves by engaging in online hate speech depending on the locality and pre-existing state of affairs of individual nation states. This exercise argues that there were three waves of hate speech in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first was a nationalistic form narrative targeting the mainland Chinese. The second one was in the form of defending the ummah because the Tabligh cluster was a large gathering which caused a significant number of infections during the initial stages of the pandemic. The last one was against the global ummah, defending the sovereign state and other Malaysians from being infected by foreign and migrant workers, especially the Rohingya refugees. We argue that they are all not in contradictory of each other, but in actual fact, glued by populist narratives of local leaders. The relativist approach, using the qualitative content analysis method was adopted to better understand the underlying factors which led to these manifestations of hate captured online and sometimes its spillover effects expressed in real life. This study concludes that there is an abstract corelation between populist exclusionary statements by political leaders and the responding hate speech sentiments being shared online during the pandemic.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T00:30:30Z
format Article
id oai:generic.eprints.org:17047
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T00:30:30Z
publishDate 2020
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:170472021-07-13T02:01:04Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17047/ Three waves of hate speech spreading faster than the pandemic in Malaysia: an analyses of outgroup populist narratives and hate speech during the COVID-19 Kevin Fernandez, Societal responses in disquietude circumstances during the corona virus (COVID-19) has been diverse, choosing to express themselves by engaging in online hate speech depending on the locality and pre-existing state of affairs of individual nation states. This exercise argues that there were three waves of hate speech in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first was a nationalistic form narrative targeting the mainland Chinese. The second one was in the form of defending the ummah because the Tabligh cluster was a large gathering which caused a significant number of infections during the initial stages of the pandemic. The last one was against the global ummah, defending the sovereign state and other Malaysians from being infected by foreign and migrant workers, especially the Rohingya refugees. We argue that they are all not in contradictory of each other, but in actual fact, glued by populist narratives of local leaders. The relativist approach, using the qualitative content analysis method was adopted to better understand the underlying factors which led to these manifestations of hate captured online and sometimes its spillover effects expressed in real life. This study concludes that there is an abstract corelation between populist exclusionary statements by political leaders and the responding hate speech sentiments being shared online during the pandemic. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17047/1/44470-143367-1-PB.pdf Kevin Fernandez, (2020) Three waves of hate speech spreading faster than the pandemic in Malaysia: an analyses of outgroup populist narratives and hate speech during the COVID-19. Geografia : Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 16 (4). pp. 285-295. ISSN 2180-2491 https://ejournals.ukm.my/gmjss/issue/view/1357
spellingShingle Kevin Fernandez,
Three waves of hate speech spreading faster than the pandemic in Malaysia: an analyses of outgroup populist narratives and hate speech during the COVID-19
title Three waves of hate speech spreading faster than the pandemic in Malaysia: an analyses of outgroup populist narratives and hate speech during the COVID-19
title_full Three waves of hate speech spreading faster than the pandemic in Malaysia: an analyses of outgroup populist narratives and hate speech during the COVID-19
title_fullStr Three waves of hate speech spreading faster than the pandemic in Malaysia: an analyses of outgroup populist narratives and hate speech during the COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Three waves of hate speech spreading faster than the pandemic in Malaysia: an analyses of outgroup populist narratives and hate speech during the COVID-19
title_short Three waves of hate speech spreading faster than the pandemic in Malaysia: an analyses of outgroup populist narratives and hate speech during the COVID-19
title_sort three waves of hate speech spreading faster than the pandemic in malaysia: an analyses of outgroup populist narratives and hate speech during the covid-19
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17047/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17047/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17047/1/44470-143367-1-PB.pdf