Friday , 08 July 2022
PRE-ELECTION ONLINE VIOLENCE?
Introduction
The report is a media monitoring endeavor, as part of a larger project entitled “Inclusive Media, Cohesive Society” (IMeCS), which seeks to trace and combat hate speech while ensuring increased representation of marginalized groups. In the pursuit of a more inclusive and open media sphere, this report is the fifteenth in a series of studies which aims to monitor segments of problematic speech in various circles of socio-political influence, whether on social media or more traditional means of spreading information. Due to a variety of reasons, including but not restricted to deeply engrained sectarian tendencies and worsening economic hardship, the usage of bigoted and prejudiced rhetoric is recurrently instrumentalized in favor of an exclusionary and “othering” narrative. This reaffirms the necessity for highlighting these instances and bringing them to the fore in order to envision a more promising, ethical, and responsible space for users, producers, and commentators.
Background and context
Before expanding on the implications of problematic, exclusionary, or incendiary speech directed towards marginalized social groups in the country, it is important that the context is carefully detailed in order to highlight the manner in which these events unfold.
As the May 15 parliamentary elections approach, content on social networks and traditional media is becoming increasingly polarized along sectarian lines. The resurgence of inflammatory rhetoric reported in the previous reports for December 2021 and January 2022 appears to continue in February. While in traditional media, only 0,6% of monitored content was associated with marginalized communities, as much as 87% of monitored Facebook content included hate speech. It is important to note that Twitter’s monitoring could not be performed during the month of February, which did not allow a trend comparison with other reports.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces (LF) do not hesitate to use military language and historical examples to galvanize the population. In a speech held in Al Ain, in northern Bekaa, the head of Hezbollah’s Political Council, Ibrahim Amin Al-Sayed, said that “the upcoming parliamentary elections are tantamount to a political July (2006) war because they want our weapons, our resistance, and our society so that the word in our country is for Israel and America.” For his part, LF leader Samir Geagea tweeted in response to Ibrahim Amin Al-Sayed that the elections are, instead, a “political war of liberation” in reference to the fight against the Syrian troops in Lebanon declared in 1989 by then-Prime Minister Michel Aoun against the Syrian army.
In addition to sectarian discourse, hate speech has continued to shape the content of online media and social networks. As elections approach, and as the Facebook report points out, women candidates often face threats that are not based on their political programs but rather on the fact that they are women participating in the elections. To counter this dynamic, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) called on Lebanon to “adopt draft laws introducing a minimum 30% quota for women candidates on political parties electoral lists and to require equal media coverage to promote women’s equal participation in politics.”
Some mainstream media outlets have responded to the call, such as LBCI, which launched the 50/50 program to shed light on Lebanese women candidates who will run in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Others are more reserved and instead offer media platforms to those accused of harassment or rape. This is notably the case of the actor and director Michel Jabre who was accused by several women of harassment and who was able to deny his accusations, which he denounced as defamation and slander, in an Annahar article “Accusations of harassment and ignorance of the law... Michel Jabre: Let those who have evidence against me present it to justice.”
It is not the first time in Lebanon that the traditional media offered platforms for those accused of crimes against women to defend themselves. Last November, Al-Akbar newspaper published an article, “The Case of Father Labaki: The Church and the fogginess of accusations and verdict,” in which it defended the rapist priest Mansour Labaki, one day after he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison in France.
As in the other reports, the monthly media monitor allows us to assess the presence of marginalized groups in the content published online on social networks and the traditional and emerging media.
Methodology
The methods used to locate, collect, and analyze the data pursued in this study, entail a classification based on the three types of platforms examined: Facebook, Twitter, and national television. Moreover, it is crucial to clarify that our study on Facebook specifically monitors problematic speech directed towards one marginalized group, i.e., this month, women. This does not apply to the selection process pursued with Twitter and national television; in both cases, all instances of problematic/hate speech were targeted. Although the manner in which such speech is defined may vary, a flexible umbrella constituting irresponsible reporting, exaggerations, generalizations, incitement, and exclusionary rhetoric is adapted for our purposes.
Traditional Media
For national television, or traditional media, the first step was to tackle all the stories related to marginalized groups (women/gender equality, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ community, refugees/IDPs, migrant workers, and religious/racial denominations) in the media outlets of choice, to see if they are equally represented or overlooked by the media. The second step was to monitor the number of hate speech cases regarding marginalized groups, while taking into consideration the behavior of the host and the guest towards hate speech.
The content study monitored the main news bulletin and the content of prime talk shows of seven Lebanese channels in the period from February 1 to 7, 2022. Only the first seven days of each month are monitored.
The media outlet covered in the study are:
A total of 947 items monitored during this period were entered in a database, where six stories were identified related to marginalized groups, which included the following information:
While one ought to be wary about arriving at conclusive results with a limited time frame and pool of data, the method used in this study revolved around keeping count of available online content discussing or tackling migrant workers on a particular number of pages of political parties, newspapers, news stations, news sites, and civil society organizations (CSOs). This is accompanied by posts which may include exclusivist or alarming speech targeting the community in general. Although ways in which such speech is defined may vary (“physical incitement” or “bigoted reporting”), a flexible umbrella constituting irresponsible reporting, exaggerations, generalizations, incitement, and exclusivity will be highlighted in this study.
In total, 39 pages were examined via the Facebook search engine tool; all in all, 395 reachable posts and comments tackled the very concept of women’s rights, autonomy, or subtle descriptions of women, and 342 of them constituted problematic speech. The following keywords were used to locate the posts under study:
As for the time interval in which this information was collected, it strictly included posts and comments made between February 15 to 22, 2022.
Hate Speech in Traditional Media
The main topics of news bulletin and the content of prime talk shows during the monitoring period of seven Lebanese channels: Al-Manar, OTV, NBN, LBCI, MTV, Al Jadeed, and Télé Liban were divided into categories:
During the monitoring period, the news bulletins recorded 947 stories, where six stories were identified as related to marginalized groups, as shown in figure 1:
|
Channels |
NBN |
MTV |
Al Jadeed |
TL |
LBCI |
OTV |
Al Manar |
|
Total # of stories |
178 |
174 |
133 |
138 |
117 |
97 |
110 |
|
Stories on marginalized groups |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
Figure 1: Breakdown of stories on Lebanese Channels (news bulletins)
Figure 2: Stories on marginalized groups to total number of stories (news bulletins)
The prime time talk shows (which include And Now What on Al-Jadeed, Lebanon Today on TL, Today’s Discussion on OTV, Talk of the Hour on Al-Manar, Twenty30 on LBCI, The Fourth Estate on NBN, and It’s About Time on MTV) recorded 21 topics. None of these topics were related to marginalized groups, as shown in figure 3. The main topics of discussion in the programs tackled the upcoming parliamentary election, the return of ISIS to Syria and Iraq, and the increase in food prices in Lebanon, especially meat and poultry.
It is also worth noting that the program Twenty30 on LBCI was not broadcasted during the monitored week.
|
Channels |
NBN |
MTV |
Al Jadeed |
TL |
LBCI |
OTV |
Al Manar |
|
Total # of stories/sections |
2 |
6 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
|
Stories on marginalized groups |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Figure 3: Stories breakdown on Lebanese Channels (talk shows)
Figure 4: Stories on marginalized groups to total number of stories (talk shows)
Figure 5: Comparison of story types in prime talk shows and news bulletins
It is worth mentioning that stories on women were clearly overlooked in news bulletins and in prime time talk shows that were monitored.
This month no hate speech or problematic content was identified in news bulletins and prime time talk shows.
Hate Speech on Facebook
In the coming months, the conversation revolving around women’s rights in Lebanon particularly relates to the parliamentary elections, especially with regards to ways in which women participated and are perceived in the context of this milestone. Accordingly, both CSOs and established sectarian parties have put forth a relatively “encouraging” rhetoric regarding women’s participation, highlighting the role of “sexist and patriarchal culture” in repressing female voices in politics.
Nevertheless, with the escalating economic crisis, elections hardly represent the only relevant domain pertaining to the socio-economic and political rights of women in today’s Lebanon. Reports have emerged about pregnant women facing malnutrition, increasing cases of sexual harassment, and migrant women being repeatedly abused and exploited. This is accompanied by the overall atmosphere of little-to-no protection provided in both the household and the public space.
Accordingly, this report aims to provide a comprehensive framing of how users on Facebook portray and perceive the role of women in the context of these recent developments on a variety of levels. It also aims to test (however inconclusively) whether or not sections of Lebanese society are capable of positioning women in leadership roles.
In order to concisely wrap up and visualize the data garnered, some charts and graphs are found below. It is crucial to consider that indications stemming from this data cannot be taken as conclusive or final due to the limited range in which this is being examined, alongside other variables that may reinforce bias.
Figure 6: Distribution of problematic comments/posts vs. Type of page
Figure 7: Number of problematic comments/posts on news stations’ Facebook pages
Figure 8: Number of problematic comments/posts on news sites’ Facebook pages
Figure 9: Number of problematic comments/posts on newspapers’ Facebook pages
Figure 10: Percentage distribution of problematic comments/posts across types of pages
Figure 11: Percentage distribution of total comments/posts across types of pages
Key Insights and Comparative Indicators
First and foremost, it is crucial to take into account that that women’s issues are multifold, ranging from participation in the democratic process to socio-economic concerns such as harassment and malnutrition; the commentary on these platforms roughly reflects these very topics. For instance, some published content about women’s rights or empowerment, specifically on the Facebook platforms of political parties, focused primarily on the question of women candidates for the 2022 parliamentary elections.
In terms of the overall distribution of content, it follows a similar pattern to that of the October 2021 study, in which the platforms of television stations and news sites (to a lesser extent) hold much of the relevant content on the matter. In the case of the former, controversial talk shows demonstrating conversations revolving around cases of abuse, harassment, or pedophilia induced a mixture of supportive and bigoted responses within the comments.
In addition, similar to the October study and reports that preceded it, sexist and misogynistic content remains frequently used when addressing political opponents and adversaries. This follows a pattern in which women are constantly sexualized in the public domain, as demonstrated by images used and abused in El-Shark Newspaper, owned by Lebanese Press Order head Aouni Kaaki.
Conclusion
While it is important to highlight the hate speech at work each month in the media and social networks, it is also important to highlight the positive initiatives that have aimed to integrate marginalized communities and promote a healthy media landscape. For example, media outlets like Beirut Today did not hesitate to describe the health services available to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, highlighting the need for better international support and reforms within the Lebanese system. On the other hand, Megaphone stepped out of the traditional narrative to talk about the decision approved by the Shura Council – Lebanon’s highest administrative court – to suspend the implementation of Labor Minister Mustafa Bayram’s decree that gave Palestinians born in Lebanon the right to practice professions that the law reserved for Lebanese nationals.
At the same time, the Lebanese media can also rely on numerous reports from international organizations that denounce the system’s abuse of marginalized communities. This month, the Norwegian Refugee Council has called attention to how Syrian refugees face evictions from their homes in many parts of the country. At the same time, Human Rights Watch monitored the investigations of the Internal Security Forces over four murders and documented several procedural violations.
As Lebanon sinks into a deepening economic crisis and the legislative elections approach, this type of investigation and monitoring by Lebanese media outlets and international organizations is more than necessary in a country where hate speech is on the rise and the culture of impunity prevails.