ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS AND HATE SPEECH ON GUS MIFTAH
ANALYZING PRAGMATIC IMPLICATIONS IN SOCIAL MEDIA DISCOURSE
Abstract
This study addresses three main questions: (1) What forms of illocutionary acts characterize hate speech in viral Instagram content involving religious figures? (2) How do these linguistic strategies polarize audience engagement in controversial religious discourse? (3) To what extent do platform mechanisms such as anonymity and algorithmic bias amplify toxicity? Through a qualitative netnographic analysis of five viral Instagram videos (late November–December 2023) featuring Gus Miftah and Ice Tea Seller three dominant hate speech themes emerge: religious-based attacks (52%), dehumanization (33%), and veiled threats (15%). Pragmatic analysis reveals that expressive illocutionary acts (60%—e.g., emotional outbursts) and directive acts (30%—e.g., demands for punishment) drive polarized engagement, with hate comments receiving three times as many likes and 35+ replies per thread compared to neutral comments. Platform dynamics exacerbate toxicity: 80% of hate comments come from anonymous accounts, while the algorithm promotes decontextualized clips, deepening ideological divisions. This study shows how linguistic aggression (micro-level) and platform architecture (macro-level) interact to normalize hate speech, offering actionable strategies for creators to counter hostility (e.g., context restoration) and platforms to prioritize ethical algorithms. By integrating linguistic theory with digital ethics, this study advances a framework for mitigating harm in Indonesia’s polarized social media landscape.
References
Ahmed Al-Rawi. (2024). Online Hate on Social Media (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan Cham.
Al-Samarraie, H., Bello, K. A., Alzahrani, A. I., Smith, A. P., & Emele, C. (2022). Young users’ social media addiction: causes, consequences and preventions. Information Technology and People, 35(7). https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-11-2020-0753
I. Kareem al-Utbi, M. (2019). A Critical Discourse Analysis of Hate Speech. Journal of the College of Languages, 0(39). https://doi.org/10.36586/jcl.2.2019.0.39.0019
Jung, C. W. (2023). Role of Informal Social Control in Predicting Racist Hate Speech on Online Platforms: Collective Efficacy and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 26(7). https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2022.0107
Krippendorff, K. (2022). Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. In Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071878781
Lakoff, G. (2017). What is Hate Speech? In Blog post.
Mantara, A. Y., Sa’id, M., Zahra, G. A., Rizkina, A. T., Febriyanti, L., & Prastika, S. B. (2023). Adaptation of the Online Disinhibition Effect Scale. KnE Social Sciences. https://doi.org/10.18502/kss.v8i19.14381
Sook Huey, L., & Yazdanifard, R. (n.d.). How Instagram Can Be Used as a Tool in Social Network Marketing.
Windisch, S., Wiedlitzka, S., Olaghere, A., & Jenaway, E. (2022). Online interventions for reducing hate speech and cyberhate: A systematic review. In Campbell Systematic Reviews (Vol. 18, Issue 2). https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1243

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Open Access Policy
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the users or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.