The ethics of social media and visual analysis (Right-wing Instagram tag data
Introduction
Fifty-seven per cent of all actions in global communications are carried out through social
media, with online communication processes accounting for the vast bulk of these acts
(Chaffey, 2021). Social media communication is accessible in some forms and means such as
text, pictures, short videos accompanied with audio and audio. The communication also takes
different inclinations such as political, environmental, economic, social communication, and/or
combinations of these areas. All across the world, political elections are taking place, and
academics are analyzing the impact of social media messaging and marketing.
Wodak (2015) corpus of work on right-wing political parties and their communication tactics
provided the theoretical underpinning for this study. Because academics tend to approach these
themes from a textual position, there is a dearth of visual analysis in politics and right-wing
movements. When it comes to politics, this is especially true since political parties have learned
that they no longer have to rely solely on the mainstream media to communicate with their
constituents and followers. On Instagram and other social media sites such as Facebook,
Twitter, and YouTube, controversial viewpoints and a lack of editorial control by traditional
media outlets may give politicians a big platform to express their opinions. Far-right political
organizations and their visual communication appear to be astonishingly consistent throughout
countries in today's world, even though their membership is growing (Doerr, 2017, p.4).
Consequently, it is vital to keep track of the hashtags used by these organizations and
individuals. As a result of their expanding online following, which indicates that their visual
communication tactics are effective, it is necessary to examine and delve deeper into what they
are communicating. Instagram, the primary social media platform for the millennial generation,
has experienced significant growth in the United States in recent years; currently, 46.2 per cent
of Americans use the generation's favourite social network (Galeano, 2019).
Social media has proven to be a powerful tool to communicate to people of all calibre. In recent
years social media has proven to be at the centre of political mobilization and control. Using
the example of the United States of America, the study describes of Instagram was used in the
US 2020 elections by the two main presidential contenders, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, with
a keen focus on Trump.
Due to the emergence of COVID-19 limiting physical interactions, social media platforms such
as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have become the best avenues for relying on and receiving
political information in the US. Trump and Biden utilized social media to sell their presidential
manifestos in the 2020 presidential elections. Throughout the campaigns, the right-wing
populist took advantage of social media and data analytics to make themselves appear more
powerful (Lewis et al., 2008). The accounts used to give out the information are pseudo
accounts; the downers cannot be verified; therefore, such accounts are known for political hate
speech. Throughout the current presidential race in the United States, Trump's campaign has
extensively used right-wing Instagram hashtags (Loitsiou et al., 2020).
The purpose of this essay is to explore the ethical use of Instagram hashtags in communication
strategies employed by the US 2020 presidential aspirants to communicate with their target
audience. The study of visual political rhetoric in promoting political ideas and ideologies on
social media is essential to understanding contemporary right-wing populism in the United
States.
The data for this essay was collected mainly from the Instagram accounts and hashtags used
during the 2020 US presidential elections. Some of the data were also retrieved from the
published articles.
The study analyses the Instagram hashtags related to the Donald Trump and Joe Biden 2020
presidential elections. The main hashtags analyzed are #Trump2020, #draintheswamp,
#Fakenews, #joementum, and #Biden2020. This topic has been chosen because it illustrates
the use of social media by the right-wing Instagram hashtags and raises ethical concerns.
Literature Review
Wahlström and Törnberg (2019) investigate the relationship between far-right politics and
social media. With a special focus on Sweden, they look into how extreme right-wing counternarratives and groups have found a footing in new forms of media and how they have benefited
from this. According to the researchers, they constructed several processes and dynamics
(2019, p.6) utilizing information acquired from sites such as Flashback.org, Facebook, and
Twitter to understand better the conditions necessary for political violence to occur. They
successfully achieved their goal due to abductive reasoning and empirical observation.
Wahlström and Törnberg (2019) noted that social media allows people to connect and share
ideas, unlike traditional mass media. This means that both online and offline activities are
carried out simultaneously in the same place. This demonstrates the relevance of social media
for political groups, which is often underestimated by the general public. The Trump 2020
campaign is under investigation for allegedly inciting violence through social media activities
(Saffiedine, 2020).
During the European Economic Crisis in Denmark and Sweden, the extreme right articulated
crisis threats, causes, and solutions using the social media hashtags, giving their approvals and
disapprovals (Askanius and Mylonas, 2015). Their perspectives on Greece, the current
financial crisis, and how they advertise themselves on social media are covered in detail. The
discussion revolves around the emergence of far-right organizations in Sweden and Denmark
due to the collapse of the global financial markets in 2008 and the ensuing recession. In their
words, "the extreme right establishes the borders of 'our identity,' which are governed by ethnogeographic cultural-political characteristics." This endeavour necessitates a thorough
understanding of developing and moulding their image (Askanius and Mylonas,2015, p.64).
Using such scenarios, politicians hold their opponents captive and further their agenda through
hate speech and propaganda or persuasion.
Furthermore, the researchers used them in their discourse analysis, in addition to interviews
with journalists and a nonprofit organization that monitors far-right websites. Laclau and
Mouffe were pioneers in far-right studies, and their theoretical approach was based on their
work, as was their empirical approach. Furthermore, as Wahlström and Törnberg point out, the
media supplies these groups with a substantial number of digital platforms, which is very
useful. Since these organizations' operations and coordination are carried out online, their
visibility on the street has lessened due to their initiatives.
Also, the anti-immigrant sentiment has been demonstrated experimentally to influence the
development of Vox in Spain, according to Turnbull-Dugarte (2019a), albeit this is not the only
factor driving the rise of the far-right in general and Vox in particular. Turnbull-Dugarte
(2019a), in "Explaining the End of Exceptionalism and Electoral Support for Vox," investigates
the many theories for Vox's electoral victory in Spain. In order to perform this research, he
used post-election data collected between December 10th and January 3rd, 2018. According to
his findings, in Spain, as compared to the rest of Europe, concerns about immigration have no
independent effect on the chance of voting for Vox or any other party at levels of conventional
statistical significance (Turnbull-Dugarte, 2019b, p.4). Consequently, the study finds that
"voters feel forced to vote for Vox when they fear that the country's autonomous regions would
be weakened," and "the political crisis caused by the Catalan disagreement stimulates and pulls
followers of pro-Spanish nationalist discourse," the study says. As the study's conclusion states,
"the political catastrophe caused by the Catalan disagreement both stimulates and pulls
followers of pro-Spanish nationalist speech into it" (Turnbull-Dugarte, 2019b, p.7). The fact
that Vox's strong rhetoric of nationalism and how this sentiment increased significantly after
Catalonia's independence movement gained attention adds another layer of complexity;
however, there are many Instagram posts in which an anti-immigrant stance and
misrepresentation of them are prevalent, making it interesting to examine the situation in
America under Donald Trump.
Aiming to bridge language borders and bring people together in opposition to immigration
through critical visual art, Doerr's (2017) strives to unite people worldwide. According to the
author, extreme-right organizations utilize a more sophisticated and covert kind of racism
today, unlike previous generations of far-right organizations. Using an empirical technique to
explore all aspects of communication, Doerr achieves his conclusions by integrating historical
discourse approaches with multimodal analysis and comparison to arrive at his conclusions.
The SVP (the Swiss People's Party) and their successful anti-immigrant propaganda are the
subjects of this chapter's investigation. This chapter covers the visual communication strategies
employed by far-right organizations. It is divided into two sections. There are three sections to
this document. She believes these cartoon designs have embedded miotics due to the
complementary relationship between word and visual. Her research also includes an
examination of the iconographic significance and symbolism of the images, which she believes
to be critical to a thorough understanding of these posters (2017, p.8). According to Doerr's
research, far-right organizations in countries like Italy and Germany have used the SVP
billboard as a model for their communication campaigns. According to Doerr, this indicates
the power of images and the global reach of the general population.
The visual analysis includes examining the selection of semiotic groups in images, an important
process element. According to Forchtner and Klvraa's (2017), it is necessary to understand
better how these groups are "modernizing" themselves and their portrayal in the social media
landscape. They aim to examine how these groups are "modernizing" themselves and their
portrayal in the social media landscape through the lens of history, nature, and gender roles.
This article describes creating a larger database from the profiles described in this article. This
database was later used to organize the content into themes, as stated in the following article
(2017, p.258). The far-right has modernized itself on the internet, according to Forchtner and
Klvraa (2017), in two ways: first, by paying attention to the arrangement and crafting of the
images, often adapting to contemporary ways of presentation such as memes or emoji, which
help to tone down their content or ideology with irony and humour; and second, by
modernizing themselves on the internet, it implies that there is an aversion to the content and
ideology of the far-right. During this process of modernizing themselves on the internet,
companies also pay particular attention to the arrangement and composition of images, often
adhering to current industry standards.
Additionally, changing the subject and using a similar linguistic style can make the presentation
more appealing to a younger audience. Semiotic arrangements are formed due to cultural
symbols such as colour composition, emphasis, and tone having a role in their formation. In
addition to reflecting the belief that the country needed a "rebirth," this online shift also
represents the fact that this transition will be based on the abilities of the younger generation.
According to Wodak and Richardson (2009), in The Impact of Visual Racism: Visual
Arguments in Political Leaflets, a historical discourse method in conjunction with critical
discourse analysis was used to compare and identify parallels between the posters and
brochures of Austrian and British far-right parties in order to compare and identify similarities.
As a result of this decision, they concentrated their efforts on using visual arguments in social
and political discourses and genres rather than other things (2009, p. 46). (p.47). The visual
and verbal interplay between the two countries emphasizes the importance of ethnic purity in
the city, and when compared, it is evident that the two countries have quite different points of
view on choosing their respective national languages. Richardson and Wodak (2009) provide
significant support for visual communication interpretation, stating that it is valid and
convincing (p.52). There is frequently very little room for interpretation in visual
communication environments (Gu et al., 2020).
Use of Instagram Hashtag in Campaign
The Trump hashtag
Following the New York Times' investigation, Instagram treated hashtag searches for
prominent United States of America presidential candidates; differently, Joe Biden's inquiries
to primarily negative linked hashtags and offering no negative linked hashtags for Donald
Trump (Sipocz et al., 2021). An additional investigation into the same account was carried out
by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), which resulted in concrete evidence of the platform's
unusual conduct being revealed. The results of a recent examination by TTP into the behaviour
of the Instagram hashtag movement revealed that both presidential candidates were being
differently characterized (Moore and Joyce, 2020). This study employed an overall total of 20
hashtags; those associated with Donald Trump included the hashtags "#Trump2020" and
"#draintheswamp," while those associated with Biden included the hashtags "#Biden2020" and
"#joementum," both of which were used for Biden during his campaign for the Democratic
presidential nomination. The Tech Transparency Project (TTP) study further discovered that
negative hashtag suggestions for Trump-related searches had been suppressed in order to solely
give good content about the president, as depicted in the report's Figure 1. Research also
uncovered many hashtags for inquiries linked to former Vice President Biden, with a
significant proportion of them having negative material about the former Vice President,
according to the investigation results.
While searching for hashtags similar to #joementum, #Biden, and #biden2020, among other
hashtags, users were directed to an Instagram search for hashtags associated with Biden. A
number of hashtags appeared in the search results, including #joementum, #Biden, and
#biden2020, amongst other hashtags. Following the findings, an algorithm was used to
construct lists of hashtags referencing Vice President Joe Biden. The algorithm searched for
the hashtag #Biden and provided results, then used to generate the lists of hashtags relating to
Biden (Madina-Serrano et al., 2020). Despite the fact that the study's findings were
contradictory, the researchers concluded that the Biden-related hashtags and other anti-Biden
hashtags such as #sleepyjoe and #neverbiden were done coincidentally to give contrary
information about the former vice president, thereby favouring the opponent Trump. Towards
the end, it was revealed that this was all part of a plot to make Biden's presidential run appear
unpopular. Both hashtags are related to conspiracy theories, as proven by the examples supplied
further down in this section revealed. It was determined that the hashtag searches for Biden
produced the results indicated in Figure 2, with a photo representing the media team. According
to TTP, other hashtags connected with conspiracy theories include #covid19isahoax, and
#georgesorosisevil, all of which were recommended in the Biden hashtag search results.
Figure 1: Trump corresponding hashtags
Figure 2: the Joe Biden corresponding hashtags in Instagram
The Trump Supporters' Campaign
In Instagram, the Right-wing populist users frequently use several hashtags to express support
for their community leaders and members such as the #Rarepepe, #Kekistan, #Praisekek, and
#kek, criticism of democrats and liberals uses hashtags like #liberalsSuck, #liberaltears,
#draintheswamp, and #libtard. Donald Trump supporters mainly use the hashtag #MAGA to
express their support in opposition to immigration. Al-Rawi (2021, p.5) note that the analysis
of Instagram hashtags findings is remarkably identical to those of a prior analysis conducted
on Twitter, which looked at the hashtag #fakenews, worth mentioning (Al-Rawi, 2019).
Finally, when it comes to the mainstream media, most of those who participate in this group
express mistrust and suspicion, as demonstrated by the user@stoppingtheabuse, who sees
himself as a patriot on the internet. Some of the quotes noted include: "I am a citizen of the
United States of America and am extremely proud of my country," "I consider myself to be a
person of colour," "I consider myself to be a follower of Christ," and "I consider myself to be
a member of the Republican Party". In the author's words, "fake news is not something I will
listen to." Consider the name "@Captain Kekistan," a play on Captain America's character
from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is the 7th most active Instagrammer, and his username
is a pun on the moniker "Captain America." Also obvious from the user's profile is that the
username is associated with the same character, even though the colour of the character's shield
has changed from blue to green (Figure 4). Kekistan, on the other hand, is a popular far-right
phrase that is based on the coded language used by members of this community who believe
in conspiracy theories such as those promoted by the QAnon secret society (QAnon) and the
QAnon secret society (QAnon) (Al-Rawi,2020). According to the definition of the term "deep
state," the latter is a conspiracy theory notion that asserts the existence of a subterranean
government in the United States with the stated objective of subverting or weakening Donald
Trump's presidential campaign and presidency (Al-Rawi, 2020).
Figure 3: A screenshot of a Pro-Trump follower using the hashtag #fakenews
(https://www.instagram.com/_conservative_warrior_/?hl=en)
Figure
4:
Screenshots
of
Captain_Kekistan
on
Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/captain_kekistan/?hl=en)
As indicated by the activity on the accounts, two distinct online groups are engaged in
conversations about fake news on Instagram, according to the accounts' behaviour. Each has
its own set of arguments in favour of its respective positions. Even though both pro-Trump and
anti-Trump communities participate in troll behaviour, the pro-Trump community is more
active and visible. Their concerted efforts, the cumulative frequency of their postings, and their
participation among the platform's top 100 most active users all contribute to this, as does their
overall popularity. The members of these two communities consider themselves to be political
activists tasked with fighting hegemony and weakening the credibility of their opponents to
advance their respective causes. This group's mission is to govern the debate, increase followers
and sympathizers, and gain control over Instagram users' thoughts. In order to accomplish this,
they deploy political memes that are appealing, intellectual, and humorous to achieve their
objectives. According to previous research (Shifman, 2012), the findings of this study support
previous research on the role of memes in strengthening community ties and cultivating a sense
of collective identity, particularly the finding that the sharing of certain memes is a reflection
of some online communities' ideological affiliation and gate-keeping practices, as well as the
finding that the sharing of certain memes is a reflection of some online communities' gatekeeping practices (Miltner, 2014). Instagram postings that are intense and frequently caustic,
commonly referred to as a "memes fight," reflect the political divide between the two main
populations and are still going on (Al-Rawi, 2020). In contrast to previous research that
examined the relationship between social media and political polarization (Bay, 2018) and
certain polarized social media content released during the 2016 United States presidential
election, this study examined the relationship between social media and political polarization
(Bay, 2018). (Denisova, 2019).
The social media ethical consideration
The above analysis shows the political discourse. The analysis raises some ethical issues
surrounding Instagram hashtags by the users of both the known and pseudo accounts. Social
networking predictability lies at the heart of the notion, founded on the idea that people can
predict how they will come to know one another, whether directly or indirectly. It is believed
that people can be linked through shared ties (even if they are not aware of it) because of
theories such as the "six degrees of separation" idea, which asserts that everyone on the planet
is just six personal relationships away from everyone else on the planet.
A sociological network analysis mapping and measurement shows the connections and flows
between people and groups, between groups of people and organizations, and between
computers, websites, and other information and knowledge-processing units (information
processing units). The same network uses hashtags to negatively portray information contrary
to individuals or a group by contravening their rights.
Social media is an organization that is invisible to the public eye. The vast majority of the
world's population views social media as a virtual representation of a real-life organization they
interact with regularly. Violations of privacy, psychological injury, and an impact on one's
position within an organization are the three most important ethical factors. The above analysis
has highlighted the violation of privacy, among other factors
Harm to Individual Standing
A statement like "when the DNC screws over Bernie again and all of his supporters have no
option but to vote for Trump" found in figure 4 was meant to demean a Democrat candidate.
An unexpected and probably unwarranted disciplinary action may emerge from a breach of
confidentiality. The statement is likely to hurt an individual's reputation.
Using social network maps, a corporation can identify information bottlenecks that prevent
information from flowing between different parts of the organization, taking disciplinary action
against those employees. Analysis by TTP showed Instagram's biased actions concerning the
presidential aspirants in the 2020 US elections.
Social media confidentiality
Maintaining confidentiality is a significant challenge in social media, particularly while
gathering data on persons. In this essay, the political rhetorics have been displayed with very
harmful technics with selfish aims of demining the opponent. An internet research project may
appear to be a lower-risk alternative at first appearance because participant information may
be acquired without the need to get any protected information, such as an address or phone
number, which is commonly necessary for traditional research projects.
Online data can be extremely destructive; for example, research that broadcasts straight text
quotes from social media may immediately identify participants. The hashtags posts such as
#Trump2020, #Biden2020, and #Fakenews can easily a huge number of people and have a
significant impact. A specific Instagram hashtag, such as #covid19isahoax, #georgesorosisevil,
and #neverbiden linked to other hashtags and accounts, can be generated from an explicit
statement placed into a search engine, allowing the participant to be identified easily.
The presentation of unique combinations of data related to participants may also make it
possible to identify them in some circumstances. This project aimed to acquire a considerable
amount of Instagram data from a US 2020 election, subsequently processed and analyzed.
Some persons' identities were finally discovered due to the unusual nature of the available
information.
Conclusion
The use of social media has grown to be a very powerful tool in all sectors. Social media as a
political tool has been for both elevation and destruction. From this study, it has been
established that Instagram hashtags were widely used in US 2020 presidential elections. The
impact was so huge, with many complaints about unfair treatment of some sections of the
presidential aspirant.
Researchers should be aware of the dangers associated with direct text quotes and avoid using
them when providing social media text quotations from study participants to protect their
anonymity, as recommended by the American Psychological Association (APA). Researchers
need to avoid providing personal information about participants in ways that could lead to their
identification to prevent participants from being identified.
In one Instagram provision, applicable to developers and operators of applications and websites
at the time of writing, you were only permitted to seek data necessary for your application's
operation. Specifically, the second portion of this article proposed that third parties write a
privacy policy that explains to consumers what types of user data they aim to use and how they
intend to use it, as well as how they intend to display, distribute, and transmit the data they
have gathered. The principles can be tested by simply collecting the data necessary to answer
the research question and presenting that data in a way that does not reveal study participants'
names to anybody other than the researchers who conducted the study.
The importance of examining the visual communication of right-wing political parties and their
biased and extreme portrayals has been demonstrated in this visual analysis. Doerr (2017) states
a need for political translators who can help highlight and put into words the multivalency of
images "within multilingual and multicultural transnational publics and social networks." This
analytical study has demonstrated the importance of doing so.
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