Emotional Politics, Islamophobic Tweet. The Hashtags #Brexit and #chiudiamoiporti

Contemporary far-right politicians increasingly diffuse messages through social networks. This article argues that online communication may prove effective for political engagement because it can create emotional reactions against certain groups, in a process that I call "emotional antagonism." An example of emotional antagonism is online Islamophobia, which considers Islam as supposedly incompatible with democratic values and tends to conflate Muslims with migrants. Through qualitative observations and textual analyses of tweets, this article explores the following questions: How do certain online exchanges emotionally frame Muslims as the social "others" in relation to European culture? Why and how does the Internet facilitate the spread of emotional antagonism? What type of political propaganda and participation is connected to affective online Islamophobia? The article analyses two case studies: 1) Islamophobic tweets sent in the aftermath of the British referendum in 2016, with the hashtag #Brexit; 2) Anti-Muslim tweets that contain the hashtag #chiudiamoiporti (close the ports), launched by Italian Vice Prime Minister Matteo Salvini in 2018 to support anti-migration measures. The article shows that exploring emotional antagonism can add complexity to the current understanding of Islamophobic conflicts, of social media platforms' characteristics, and of political participation based on online communication.

当代极右翼政客正日益通过社交网络传播信息。本文认为，网络传播或许能有效推动政治参与，因其可在我称之为“情感对抗（emotional antagonism）”的过程中，引发针对特定群体的情绪反应。情感对抗的一个例子是网络伊斯兰恐惧症（Islamophobia），这种现象将伊斯兰教视为与民主价值观格格不入，并倾向于将穆斯林与移民混为一谈。通过对推文的质性观察与文本分析，本文探讨以下问题：特定网络互动如何从情感层面将穆斯林构建为相对于欧洲文化的社会“他者”？互联网为何及如何促进情感对抗的传播？与情感化的网络伊斯兰恐惧症相关联的政治宣传及参与形式有哪些？本文分析了两个案例研究：1）2016年英国公投后发布的带有#Brexit标签的伊斯兰恐惧症推文；2）意大利副总理马泰奥·萨尔维尼（Matteo Salvini）于2018年为支持反移民措施发起的、带有#chiudiamoiporti（关闭港口）标签的反穆斯林推文。本文指出，对情感对抗的探究有助于深化对伊斯兰恐惧症冲突、社交媒体平台特征及基于网络传播的政治参与的现有理解。