Hate Speech Acts: A Case in Joe Biden’s Instagram Post Comments

Abstract

This research analyzed acts of hate speech in comments directed at President Joe Biden on the Instagram platform by employing Mondal's hate speech theory and Searle's Illocutionary Act theory to identify and classify these comments' hate speech and illocutionary speech acts. The study applied a qualitative descriptive method, and the data source was obtained by collecting netizens' comments from the Instagram comments column of Joe Biden. After analyzing the data from Joe Biden's Instagram post, the researcher found five types of illocutionary acts, including Assertive with indicators, namely complaining, asserting, and denying, Directive with indicators, namely requesting, asking, advising, suggesting, and begging, Commissive with an indicator, namely wishing. Declarative with an indicator, namely declaring, and Expressive with indicators, namely rejection, criticism, and disagreement. There are five types of hate speech found in Joe Biden's Instagram comments, namely behavior, religion, class, gender, and physical. This diversity in illocutionary acts highlights the complexity of public sentiment, ranging from assertive statements to emotional expressions. Understanding how users communicate their opinions and criticisms is crucial for assessing public engagement with political figures in the digital age, as revealed through the analysis of Joe Biden's Instagram comments.