Racism on Social Media

Communication technology in the 20th century experienced rapid progress and development. The current use of technology, although not evenly distributed, has spread even in rural areas. Current technology is a means to provide various items needed for human survival. Initially the use of technology was used by humans to convert natural resources into simple tools, until now the latest technological developments such as the internet.

In this new era of globalization, humans have made many big changes, and they have succeeded in making great tools that can help and facilitate finding information, thus in this modern age technology can be considered as one part of the human body itself waiting to be eliminated then it will feel less perfect.

In addition to communication tools such as: mobile phones, tablets, etc., this tool becomes the main requirement for the owner, in addition to providing long-distance communication can also be used to find news or information what we want. For this reason, we are required to learn and make use of the technology itself so that we will not be left behind. Although the technology has helped us human beings to be more globalized by knowing information from all over the world, the existence of internet and social media itself also created a platform where people can express their opinions freely. This creates the opportunity of racist people to be racist on these platforms.

The community has successfully used it for various purposes, for example online businesses. Related to those who can read opportunities that can easily and freely get discussion only with these technological tools, but there are also people who are not responsible for utilising it by creating an online business that spends more people by supporting them. For this reason, caution is needed in responding to the development of this technology.

For this reason, between humans and technology, it is currently difficult to solve, because humans will need technology to facilitate safety, while technology will continue to develop in accordance with the era, because maybe when there are still many technologies that have not yet been discovered, can be found in the future. by creative and innovative humans.

This is where the young people who become the successor of the nation are required to continue to develop their talents to be able to create technologies that are beneficial to life, do not let them be lulled by developments that help to destroy ,, living in modern times, asking for agility and intelligent reason so that we can can help compete with the wider community and can bring change to our nation.

The use of communication technology can also help and facilitate the transfer of data from one device to another both near and long distances. Third, it can play a role to regulate or manage a system so that it can be managed properly. Good management of the system will affect the performance of the system as well.

In addition to the above functions, another function is communication technology that is capable of carrying values from the general economic, social and political structure. And the last function is to increase the ability of the senses of each human being in the ability to hear and see.

The issue of racism is not new in homo sapiens civilisation. Even Jared Diamond in his book Bedil, Kuman, and Baja said that humans were so arrogant to attach sapiens to homo sapiens. Medium sapiens itself means ‘wise man’ in the Latin language.

Racism is any action that involves differences, exclusion, restrictions or preferences based on colour, ancestry, religion, national origin or ethnicity. Racism has the detrimental effect of recognising, enjoying or exercising the rights or freedoms available within the University.

Racism continues to develop generally and violently on the Internet in today’s digital era. Specific online factors such as increased anonymity and ‘digital freedom of speech’ have allowed users to freely express their racist ideology to the public to be witnessed without fear of direct consequences and responsibility. However, little attention has been given to examining racism in online experiences. In bringing this issue to the forefront, we provide a conceptual framework in characterising the prevalence of racism in online settings.

Social media originally intended to unite. Now Bertiwikrama become a medium to hate each other. No exception racism that helps the flourishing of extremism to terrorism. A degrading culture via the digital world can be called a troll. According to the Whitney Phillips (2012) report from datasociety.net, trolling behaviour can mean showing disapproval until labelling someone as a Nazi. The memetic war (with memes) was first made a joke. Can spark shit posting to anarchy in the real world.

Discussion forums such as 4chan in the sub-forum / pol become a white supremacist and anti-semitic shelter. The rollingstone.com and Ceros report found 2012 as the beginning of changing the principle of the sub-forum to be very conservative. With the escalation the N-word (nigger for black people in the US) increased from 25 thousand times in 2015 to nearly 125 times in 2018.

After 4chan got a lot of media attention. The racism movement labelling itself as neo-Nazis actually wrestled in the 8chan forum. As a consequence, New Zealand authorities revealed 8chan had spearheaded the propaganda shootings of Christchurch and El Paso Texas.

Being investigating bellingcat.com on the 8chan sub forum ie / pol found scary results. Mosque worshipers’ manifesto in Christchurch New Zealand inspires shooting at a synagogue in Poway California. The shooter has interacted for a long time and is active in the neo-Nazi forum on 8chan.

Black people reportedly attacked white people during the release of the 2018 Black Panther film. After that, rumours emerged of anarchist retaliatory movements from white people to black people in several theatres in the US.

The Guardian released an Opininium survey of racism after Brexit in the UK in May 2019. The results were quite disturbing. The increase in discrimination in 2016 (pre-Brexit, 64%) is both significant in 2019 (post-Brexit, 76%). This data is in line with reported cases of crime related to racism in the UK which has doubled since 2013. Reports in the UK and Wales in 2019 to 71 thousand more.

This survey of 1,006 minority respondents also revealed that the number of racism-based posts increased from 37% in 2013. Now to 51% in 2019. With the prevalence of reports users of racism posts increased by 50%.

Glorification can be confirmation (confirmation bias) is the cause of fertility in social media racism. This confirmation bias is a concept in which a person will prefer and believe what he has chosen and believed before. Alsaad, Taamneh, and Al-Jedaiah (2011) found this confirmation could be supported by an abundance of information flow, selective user preferences, and biased content.

At least, there are two racial sentiments in Indonesia that still occur frequently. Namely the sentiment towards ethnic Chinese and Papuans. Tirto.id summarises since the 17th century during the Dutch government. Until the 20th century during the New Order era in West Kalimantan. Many bloody events based on Chinese ethnic sentiments have already taken place.

It is said that the privilege of ethnic Chinese by the VOC made the local merchants jealous at that time. The commotion of Chinatown (1740) is clear evidence of ethnic-based hatred. Exclusion of ethnic Chinese in the Soeharto era also occurred. As a result, ethnic-based racism seems to be passed down from generation to generation.

Cases of human rights violations in Mapendum (1996), Biak Numfor (1998) and Paniai (2014) became a complicated issue for the government in Papua. Although the case of the Abe Mapolsek attack (2000), and the handling of the riots at Cendrawasih University (2006) was over. Although it is not the main cause, it has been fuelled by separatism that OPM has tried 7 times by raising the flag.

As a result, hitting even ethnic Papuans as separatists has become an implicit stigma in society. In 2016, students from Papua experienced discrimination from living in boarding houses around Yogyakarta. Until the term monkey in a Papuan student who was then occupied by a mob on suspicion of not raising the Red and White flag occurred in Malang.

Unfortunately, much of the racist sentiment in the digital world is handled sporadically. Without burdensome on the educational and preventive side. Sites like nahimungkar.org are thick with Chinese racist sentiments. Public figures such as Ki Gendeng Pamungkas briefly posted racist content that was eventually captured by the police.

Although there has been research on the ranking of intolerant cities in Indonesia. With Jakarta as the most intolerant city. I have not yet met specific research on the demographics of racism in Indonesia. Although cases of racism based on ethnic Chinese and discrimination of Papuans in Jakarta have and often occur.

The public social media timetable was at least poisoned by racial issues. Especially when there are sensitive issues happening. Like the case of alleged religious harassment by Meliana who happened to be of Chinese ethnicity in Medan last year. And what became the trending topic in 2017 was Ahok’s Chinese sentiments when allegedly insulting the majority religion.

It could be that expressions of hatred based on racism in the public timeline are considered trolls. Not a serious and frontal troll like neo-Nazis in Western countries. But it is the troll that ultimately maintains and insinuates certain ethnic hatreds via the digital world. Repressive action by arresting perpetrators of online racism spreaders is often done. While education and preventive actions on this sensitive issue have never been discussed at school and academia.

Racism and oblivion of racism in an ethnically based online world that thrives. Slanting alludes to Chinese-ness and the black colour of the skin becomes a toxic joke on the timeline. Eliminating ethnic racism in the public timeline is difficult. Even in many developed countries. The internet, and specific social media platforms, sometimes clash with the interests of freedom of expression. Although in reality, the free speech that occurs is the superiority of the majority over the minority.

Anyone who cares about racism on campus can approach the Ant-Racism Contact Officer informally. They will provide support and assistance as well as information about the University’s Anti-Racism policy and complaints procedures. Complaints procedures are designed to ensure that you receive a sympathetic and confidential hearing. No action will be taken unless requested by the complainant, and at all stages of confidentiality will be maintained.

The complaints procedure gives you a number of options, for example you can, tell the person that you object to the behaviour and you want to stop it. Discuss the situation with the same Opportunity Contact Officer who has been specifically chosen and trained for this purpose and who can arrange informal or formal conciliation. Talk to your supervisor or lecturer. Make an official complaint. Contact your union. Contact the Equal Opportunity Unit. Contact the Equal Opportunity Commission.

If you experience racist behaviour, keep a secret record of everything that happened. Be sure to enter the name, witness, date and time of the event. Promotes mutual respect between individuals who come from different cultural backgrounds. Openly support and promote the University’s Anti-Racism policy. If you observe racist behaviour, speak up and name it as it is. Offer support to people who are abused. If you are a supervisor, share information about the University’s Anti-Racism policy and make sure that the policy is complied with in your area.

It cannot be denied that the main cause of progress in this globalisation era is influenced by the rapid development in information technology. Its presence has given a huge impact on human life in this day and age. But sadly, the technological world also brought negative impact and one of them is online racism. Online racism brought so many negative effect and yet it can cause death for people who was being bullied and also it can make someones image look negative. In order to prevent online racism or stop it from happening, we can contact authorities as well as contact and tell the bully ourself that we don’t support it. We can also raise awareness about online racism so that people are aware of the dangerous effect caused by online racism.

Bibliography

1. Ahrc.admin. “Cyber-Racism.” Racism. It Stops With Me, 18 Nov. 2014, https://itstopswithme.humanrights.gov.au/what-can-you-do/speak/cyber-racism.
2. American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2015/12/online-racial-discrimination.
3. Bliuc, Ana-Maria, et al. “This Is How Racism Is Being Spread across the Internet.” World Economic Forum, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/racism-in-a-networked-world-how-groups-and-individuals-spread-racist-hate-online/.
4. “Cyber Racism Fact Sheet (2011): Australian Human Rights Commission.” The Australian Human Rights Commission, https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/cyber-racism-fact-sheet-2011.
5. “Cyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights.” Rowman & Littlefield, https://rowman.com/isbn/9780742561588/cyber-racism-white-supremacy-online-and-the-new-attack-on-civil-rights.
6. Jakubowicz, Andrew, et al. “Cyber Racism News, Research and Analysis.” The Conversation, 29 Jan. 2019, http://theconversation.com/global/topics/cyber-racism-9413.
7. Keum, Brian TaeHyuk, and Matthew J. Miller. “Measurement Invariance of the Perceived Online Racism Scale across Age and Gender.” Cyberpsychology, 31 Dec. 2018, https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/11165/10161.
8. Palmer, James. “How Does Online Racism Spawn Mass Shooters?” Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy, 4 Aug. 2019, https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/04/online-racism-4chan-8chan-shootings-elpaso-dayton-texas-ohio/.
9. “Racism in a Digital Age | Opinion.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/racism-in-a-digital-age.
10. “The Internet Is Unmasking Racism. Here’s What That Means to Young People of Color.” Boston University, https://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/internet-racism/.

Did you like this example?

1427

59