When Online Commentary Turns into Violence: The Role of Twitter in Slander Against Journalists in Colombia

This study examines a dispute between former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez and journalist Daniel Samper Ospina via social media. We aimed to describe how various forms of violence against journalists had emerged in the public sphere during the post-conflict era of Colombian society, threatening their security. In a qualitative case study, we content analyzed 592 tweets to document how threats from former president Uribe contributed to the formation of networks engaging in verbal violence on Twitter when he called the journalist Daniel Samper Ospina “a child rapist” without offering proof. Results showed that attacks on freedom of the press originated from a legitimate actor, caused an extremely polarized discussion among citizens, who took sides, and provoked further threats and accusations. Conciliatory positions were hard to find.

Sample

In a qualitative case study, we content analyzed 592 tweets to document how threats from a political power holder contributed to the formation of networks engaging in verbal violence on Twitter.

Main Findings

Results of this study showed that the messages exchanged on the original tweets generated by former president @AlvaroUribeVel against the journalist @DanielSamperO triggered a public dispute. Over 70% of users who joined (tweeting or replying) were ordinary individuals expressing their political positions. 63% were male, 21% were female, and 17% were the undefined group, which included institutional accounts and anonymous users. Those users supporting the journalist led the conversation (64%). However, the debate also turned extreme for both parties to the dispute. Many tweets (31.3%) coded under the Extreme variable expressed harsh opinions against opponents by featuring violent language, threats, and sometimes accusing the other party of committing various felonies without offering proof. A closer look at the actors involved in the disagreement shows that those supporting former president @AlvaroUribeVel were fewer in number, only 71, but 63 of them featured an extremely belligerent discourse.

Policy recommendations/implications

The tweets exchanged used harsh language that authors (Gagliardone et al.,2015) have found to amplify verbal and potentially physical violence against the press through such hate speech. As others have suggested, these attacks can also harm the news production process because they may lead to self-censorship since journalists may choose not to cover specific issues (Jungblut & Hoxha, 2016; Löfgren Nilsson & Örnebring, 2016) or may refrain from investigating certain political actors (Hughes et al., 2017). Additionally, verbal aggression may lead to future violent behavior (Reynolds, 2009). Our network analysis indicated, and many authors confirm (Conover et al., 2011), that one comment stimulated the creation of like-minded communities which mainly expressed opinions in favor of or against the social actors involved in the dispute. This confirms the view that social media serve as echo chambers of polarized exchange and, in this case, extreme positions (Quattrociocchi, Scala, and Sustein, 2016). Network analysis showed a wave of comments filled with threats, hostility, calumnies, and other forms of verbal violence against each group. It also evidenced the power of social media to amplify discussions and aggression, poisoning severe security threats against journalists.

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Paradoxically, the 55-year-long Colombian conflict with the FARC guerrilla movement ended in 2016 with a peace agreement. Violence against the press rose between 2017 and 2019: 430 reporters were attacked. (CNMH, 2022). From them, five journalists have been killed in the last three years (FLIP, 2023). Unfortunately, from 2020 onwards, new records of threats against journalists have been broken. In 2022 we had the highest figures in the last 15 years: 218 threats. (FLIP, 2023)