There is hate, solidarity or political pressure: why is Twitter one of the most conflictive social networks in Ecuador?

This week in Ecuador, a case of alleged sexual harassment of sports journalists went viral on Twitter. The names of the people involved quickly became a trend. The pressure generated on that platform was such that the Prosecutor’s Office announced an ex officio investigation. Most social or solidarity causes are supported in this social network: job search, gender struggle, harassment, feminism, environmentalism have an echo.

But nevertheless, In this social network we can also observe how the bullying it becomes a trend. For example, when politicians, journalists, artists or opinion leaders have made statements considered “controversial”, labels are activated that seek to “trolley” their ability, their convictions. It is enough to think differently so that the arguments are left aside and aggressiveness takes control of the tweets.

This social network has experienced a considerable increase in users in the country in the midst of the pandemic. According to the Ecuador Digital State study, from Management Training, in Ecuador 1.5 million accounts were registered on Twitter until October last year. This is a 50% growth in users compared to pre-pandemic times. Although the increase is notable, the number of people who use this network is considerably less than those who use Facebook (13.7 million) or Instagram (5.8 million), for example.

Globally, 75% of Twitter users are considered to be “inactive,” meaning they have accounts just to read what’s going on, but don’t discuss or post. Only 25% are active and constantly tweet, reply, retweet and interact with other users.

Its status as an eminently textual social network (although over time it incorporated photos and videos), the limitation of characters and immediacy are some of the characteristics that make Twitter a social network conducive to conflictsays María Elena Narváez, Director of Online Education at SEK International University.

“The textual social network is perceived as tougher, but not the audiovisual ones that are perceived as more friendly”, he indicates. For her, the growth of Twitter users in Ecuador is closely related to the generation of trends that awaken the desire to be informed in people.

“Now a kind of informal journalists have been created in this social network who are not communicators and who use immediacy to generate content. Currently we are no longer in the age of information, but of misinformation and saturation, so people prefer to be given everything in capsules and this is what Twitter does”he points out.

By limiting the characters in the tweets, users must create stronger messages so that it reaches the right audience: “On networks like Facebook, opinions, for example, are not so harsh because there is no extension problem and they can be added phrases that nuance the message. On Twitter not many people chew the message before writing it and the behavior, in general, is more visceral, there is no contrast.

This lack of verification or verification was evidenced in a “social experiment” carried out by the Ecuadorian singer Martín Galarza, better known as AU-D, when in August 2020 he published a tweet, as a joke, indicating that he would be a candidate for Assemblyman for the Partido Ecuadorian Opposition. The political movement does not exist.

The artist received all kinds of insults and had to clarify that it was an experiment. He said that this showed that on Twitter and other social networks the verification of information is null.

For Fernando Checa García, a professor at the International University of La Rioja and an expert in social networks and information technology, the fact that Twitter does not have a large volume of users in Ecuador does not prevent it from being “flashy” and having a significant impact on society. He adds that one of the reasons why this platform is used to broadcast hate messages is the ease of opening an account anonymously.

“You just need an email address. Twitter doesn’t really check who’s behind it. Shielded in this anonymity, many hateful and aggressive messages appear. Networks like Facebook have spent years trying to fight against anonymity, for example“, it states.

Added to this are the automated networks of so-called “bots” to increase the reach of certain messages. “To this we must add that in most social networks there is little contrast and truthful information tends to be seen as boring, so misinformation is replicated more.” Bots are mainly used for political messages.

Carlos Centeno claims to be an inactive Twitter user. He enters the social network only on certain occasions. For example, he checks people’s comments after a soccer game of his favorite team. He reads the messages, but does not post tweets: “There are many people who think they are coaches or professional players. They insult and fight each other. I have seen racist, classist and sexist messages. I feel like it’s a violent network, but I like to read the fights”. It also enters when there are political events, he adds.

The “spiral effect” of this platform, according to Narváez, means that the network lends itself to conflict, since the majority of active users tend to be aggressive and transgressive, and those who want to stay or be active must adapt to these conditions.

“People who are active in this network do not necessarily have the profile of an empathetic person, who likes to please, but quite the opposite. They are people who seek conflict, difference of opinion and take for granted that their way of thinking is the one that should be considered on any issue, ”he says.

Twitter is aware of the amount of harmful and abusive tweets that are published daily and has tried to implement measures to combat this type of messages. Currently you can report accounts, block them or hide messages considered offensive. In fact, on Wednesday, February 16, the platform announced that it will be expanding its security mode feature.

This system will flag accounts that use hate comments or those that bombard people with uninvited comments, and block them for seven days. Additionally, it will proactively identify potentially harmful responses and prompt people to consider enabling the mode.

Although it is good that the same platform applies measures to try to reduce this type of reaction, both Narváez and Checa agree that it is also necessary to educate users to seek information based on sources, to contrast and verify a piece of information before tweeting it or share it. (I)