Extremism & Whataboutism: A Case Study on Bangalore Riots

A common diversionary tactic used to deflect attention from contested issues is whataboutery which, when used by majoritarian groups to justify their behaviour against marginalised communities, can quickly devolve into extremism. We explore the manifestations of extreme speech in the Indian context, through a case study of violent protests and policing in the city of Bangalore, provoked by a derogatory Facebook post. Analyses of the dominant narratives on Twitter surrounding the incident reveal that, most of them employ whataboutism to deflect attention from the triggering post and serve as breeding grounds for religion-based extreme speech. We conclude by discussing how our study proposes an alternative lens of viewing extremism in the Global South.
Comment: Accepted at CSCW'21 Workshop on Addressing Challenges and Opportunities in Online Extremism Research