Covert hate speech : white nationalists and dog whistle communication on Twitter

Abstract

Dog whistling, a form of symbolic communication through seemingly innocuous terms is a common practice for members of far-right movements. This chapter examines how dog whistling was used on Twitter during the 2016 presidential election through a virtual ethnographic approach. Dog whistling serves to circumvent censorship by automated moderation, and adapts historical markers of the far-right as well as symbols used in other media to work within Twitter’s affordances. Thus, Twitter is employed as a channel to spread hate and signal belonging among far-right communities. In doing so, creative use is made of the platform’s technology, in the face of the site’s moderation techniques, to convey white supremacist ideas to a broader audience while staying under the radar of detection.