Corona protests: What role emojis play in radical groups – digital


They are small, colorful and look quite innocent at first glance: emojis. The little pictures and figurines can be found on every smartphone and over the years have become a tool of communication in the global Internet society. More than ten billion emojis are sent every day. They provide the emotional soundtrack for the typed information and make the difference whether a message is interpreted as friendly and open or as cynical or even nasty.

Although it was the real goal of the more than 3000 symbols to communicate easily with visual means and worldwide without misunderstandings, nevertheless certain characters in the emoji alphabet develop a life of their own. Some of them are used for political activism or used by groups as a distinguishing feature.

Data research #hassmessen

This article is part of the #hassmessen project. The digital report on the research and other articles from the main topic can be found here: sz.de/hassmessen.

In the right-hand online scene, for example, the best-known examples of misappropriated emojis are the milk glass 🥛 and the “OK” sign 👌. The finger-and-thumb gesture and the frosted glass are used by right-wing extremists as an expression of so-called “white supremacy”, like the US Anti-Defamation League reportedwhich stands up against discrimination and defamation of Jews.

The SZ data analysis of almost twelve million Telegram messages (read here the digital report) in the networks of opponents of corona measures right up to the extremist scene provides insights into radical codes and symbolism. These include the green frog emoji 🐸, which is now used as a racist symbol of hatred in right-wing internet culture. The green frog stands for the cartoon character “Pepe the Frog” and was actually harmless for a long time until it was hijacked in 2016 by right-wing supporters of former US President Donald Trump and made a symbol of the alt-right movement in the USA. The frog emoji can be found very often in the Telegram groups that deal with conspiracy theories and extremism. Here, for example, in a message from a QAnon group spreading lies about the outcome of the US election:

“Biden has lost …. Little 💥BOM 👀🐸🍿z @ QWWG1WGA16PLUS1”

The QAnon movement spreads conspiracy myths and develops violent and democratic-endangering potential.

In addition to the frog, other animals are symbolically charged in radical Telegram groups and are used as codes and ciphers: for example the eagle 🦅 and the wolf 🐺 as patriotic symbols – not only, but also for Germany, as here in this message at the beginning of February:

“🐺 GERMANY MUST AND WILL STRENGTHEN AGAIN IN ALL ITS POWER AND GLORY! (…)”

The dove 🕊, which is traditionally used as a symbol of peace and often flanked calls for protests, is also popular in the emoji zoo of the network of the Corona critic scene. Or the sheep 🐑, which stands for the so-called “sleeping sheep”, for people who do not fundamentally distrust politics and the media, who do not believe in conspiracy ideologies – as for example in this message about the Corona app:

“Corona App: Downloaded 14 million times – 14 million sheep in our fatherland! 🐑”

Or the rabbit 🐰🐇, a pop culture reference to the narrative Alice in Wonderland and the Matrix films, on the phrase “Follow the white rabbit”: Anyone who follows up individual clues, small inconsistencies and contradicting information will, so it is said in radical communities, soon come across other conspiracy ideologies – and in the end supposedly understand how they are all related.

The color combinations used in Telegram postings are also striking: black, red and gold, but often also black, white and red in the form of hearts or circles. This color combination stands for the flag of the German Empire – in this message the eagle appears again:

“Full throttle comrades 🙏 🦅⚔️⚫⚪🔴⚔️🦅”

Other flags are also used by users, especially in messages that, according to the data analysis, are extremist or conspiracy ideological. This is especially true for the flags of countries that are often involved in conspiracy narratives, for example Israel, Iran and Russia. The US flag also plays an important role in this news – in connection with words of praise for the former US President Donald Trump, with stories about alleged election fraud in favor of Joe Biden or with the QAnon ideology imported from the States.

Since 2015, human motifs can be displayed in six colors. It is noticeable that in most of the evaluated forums mainly yellow faces or light skin tones are posted. Especially when it comes to sexist or offensive content, emojis with different, i.e. darker skin tones, can be found in the news. The emoji of a woman with a headscarf 🧕 is used when it comes to devaluation. This means that users of these forums use dark skin tones when certain people or groups are to be devalued or insulted. Such postings, which are deliberately not shown here, oozes racism and often misogyny.

The emojis with a raised hand are also suspicious. The mostly male adult figure with an outstretched right arm 🙋‍♂️ stands in its original meaning for the desire to ask or say something. According to the analysis, this emoji is often used here as a greeting symbol. And the emoji with white skin is used particularly frequently in forums with right-wing extremist content. The assumption is therefore that the figure is also used as a Hitler salute in this context. It comes to a similar conclusion a research of the online platform Buzzfeed, which evaluated German propaganda forums of the news service Whatsapp in 2019 and became aware of this emoji. This graphic shows the number of emojis used with the raised hand. Figures with light skin are particularly often posted in right-wing extremist and QAnon groups:

Although there are many indications that this emoji was also used in the Telegram groups as a Hitler salute, irrefutable evidence is difficult. This is also the reason why emojis are so popular: because they are ambiguous. In the case of controversial political opinions or even judicial statements such as the Hitler salute, users feel safer to hide a message behind a cute face. This is also confirmed by the Dutch historian and emoji expert Lilian Stolk, who researches the use of emojis in messages: “You hide your own political opinion behind a layer of irony.” Anyone who uses an ambiguous emoji can, according to Stolk, deny an actual connection to right-wing extremist ideas because it is meant “just funny”. But at the same time the symbol still creates a connection to these ideas – especially for the initiated.

It is difficult for outsiders to interpret all references, jokes and emojis. With insiders, you develop cohesion in a group “because you understand the codes,” says Stolk. It is, so to speak, a low-threshold entry into a social group and in Telegram forums like this the first step towards radicalization, as extremism expert and political advisor Julia Ebner confirms: “You are accepted into an exclusive group that speaks a very specific language is spoken. ” This is very powerful, especially at the beginning of the radicalization path.

The groups are not just about the feeling of power and knowledge, the emoji analysis also suggests that the topics in the forums are very emotional. The heart 💛🧡❤️ and the face with tears of joy 😂 are used very often by users. The explosion emoji 💥 is also among the ten most used emojis and indicates that the respective user would like to point out explosive content.

Emojis such as exclamation marks ❗ or arrows ⬇️ are also high on the popularity scale.

With such symbols, postings can be well structured, highlighted or you can indicate a link with an arrow ➡️. Because with hundreds, thousands of messages sent per day in the individual groups or channels, it is also about standing out from others and competing for attention. As if the users wanted their posting to stand out from the crowd – from the sheer mass of hate messages.

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