ANTI-INDIGENOUS CYBERHATE ON YOUTUBE: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SETTLER-COLONIAL RHETORIC IN CANADA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20319/icssh.2026.610627Keywords:
Anti-Indigenous Racism, Digital Extremism, Discourse Analysis, Online Hate Speech, YoutubeAbstract
Right-wing and extremist views are readily shared across online platforms, including YouTube. In these instances, users post hate-filled and discriminatory perspectives that are visible to all viewers. The discourses are also, quite often, sources of misinformation that serve to polarize broader social and political opinions and attitudes by accentuating the criticisms and perceived injustices of government policy and practices that favour initiatives related to multiculturalism and diversity. The study examines the hate speech shared on YouTube platforms that resonate with the same settler colonial ideologies that are normative constructs of Eurocentric hegemonic traditions and positioned to target the interests and welfare of Indigenous Peoples. Discourse theory was used to examine larger sequences of communication exchanges as they were shared in the comments section of two YouTube video presentations as they relate to National Indigenous Day in Canada. The June (2020) video received 9,100 viewers and included 63 comments. The June (2021) video received 14,624 views and had 333 comments. Two data sets were established from a representative sample of the comments section of the two online videos and labeled into two subsets identified as hateful and racist. The respective discourses were extracted from the data and coded. Two themes emerged, including Refuting Racism and Settler-Canadian Hostility. The discourse analysis shed light upon the ideological associations of the respective words, descriptions, and metaphors of the posts, including the criticisms of the social phenomena under discussion. Distinct to the comments and representing a major contribution of the study is the troubling and entrenched tone of anti-Indigenous racism that employs a provocative rhetoric of intolerance on behalf of discontented settler-Canadians.
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